.x>^ ^ 



\ 



ci- 



^ ^/ 



^ .0^^ 



-->, 






^•i^ 



% c,"; 






.0 



■ O- 









rP 



■^oO^ 



%^'--, 



^ -n 









->. .,<^ 



'X 



-^• 






A 



,xV c^ 



cf' * ■ 



.~!\ 



\' V*' 




- .r. 


^ V S -^ ' A 



■ 1 \ 



-^^ 















,6^ 



O^ 



;\. 






"o^^ 

^ V 















' ^ .^.^^. 









^V^/^ 






V'' 



^^ v^^ 



■"oo^ 



./> \^ 



v^ 



.^ -c> 



'ci-. 



^ 




/ 




7 










■a '^^ ^ -^ 






-.^ ' " u 




'■ ^^ '^^'-. 






/. '"^.. C^' 







ci-. 









^A V 






'<r 



..'>'■ % 





V 


\^^' 






■ / 


% 




1' 


. \- 






-'/ 








-^^ 








o_ 






"^^ ^ 


A -71 


>^ y - 




^°^. 



iT 



^ ^^ 



•^ 

"^^ 



DRAGONS 



AND 



CHERRY-BLOSSOMS 







NOV 3 



Copyright, 1896, 
By T3odd, Mead and Company, 



A II rights reserved. 



John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



r^ 



^ 






[t^ 



TO 



MY HUSBAND. 




u 



Many have been before me, and the theme 
of this volume can hardly be called new, for 
Japan has been viewed from every side and 
through all kinds of eyes. This, however, has 
not deterred me from jotting down a few 
observations and experiences of my own, hop- 
ing that in them my readers may feel some 
rays of the Orient sunshine and beauty. 

1 desire to thank Mr. Burton J. Hendrick 
for the kind and sympathetic aid given upon 
the manuscript. 



kk 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Foreign Residents 15 

Shiopping 49 

Our Dinner at Kioto 81 

Miyako Odori 109 

The Rise and Fall of the Kakemono . 141 

A Glimpse of Royalty I73 

Fin de Siecle Japan 209 

Clio and Eba 239 



FOREIGN RESIDENTS. 




FOREIGN RESIDENTS. 



VOUR visit to Japan is likely to be 
^ a succession of surprises. Our 
discovery of the country is so recent 
that the large amount of literature on 
the subject frequently fails to change 
your childhood impression of that dis- 
tant land. European travellers often 
entertain us with their ideas of Amer- 
ica as an uncultivated waste with an 
occasional hastily constructed town, 
in which the red man is still to be 

15 



seen ; and my notions of the land of 
the Mikado were somewhat similar. 
I could never think of the Orient 
without thinking of the mushroom 
hat ; and for me Japan meant a suc- 
cession of bamboo huts, almond-eyed 
men with long and low-hanging 
moustaches, an occasional china cup, 
and now and then a strangely deco- 
rated fan. 1 was not at all sure that 
it was a hospitable shore to visit; I 
understood that heads were removed 
there upon the slightest provocation. 
My earliest knowledge was gained 
from the paper lanterns that were the 
delight of Fourth-of- July celebrations, 
and those remarkably 
adorned napkins fa- 
miliar to patrons of 
church fairs. I was 
also frequently called 
upon to make Sunday- 
School contributions 

i6 




for the conversion of these abandoned 
souls, and have vivid recollections of 
listening to many addresses by daring 
spirits, who had actually returned 
from the dangerous soil. After such 
occasions as these, I always looked 
upon the principal occupation of the 
Japanese as the stoning of mission- 
aries. As I grew older, I tried to 
educate myself into ditferent ideas, 
but all the books that I read, and 
even an occasional Japanese friend 
that 1 made, did not succeed in doing 
away with my childish fancies. 

And so, when 1 found myself sail- 
ing into the Port of Yokohama one 
bright April morning, the ideal Japan 
of years gone by was what was upper- 
most in my mind. At first I thought 
there must be some mistake, for there 
was nothing to be seen in this harbour 
to correspond with the strange de- 
lights of my dreams. Not a single 

2 17 



one-storied, thatched house, such as 
used to grace the pages of my geog- 
raphy, was visible on the shore. 
Everything, as far as I could see, was 
the same as the entrance to an Eu- 
ropean seaport. The long array of 
wharves might perhaps be missing, 
but there was many a ship built on 
western lines, and occasionally a small 
steam-tug went puffing by, the whis- 
tle blowing as naturally as in any 
western harbour. And, even as I 
looked beyond all this, towards the 
shore, there was no visible sign that 
I had reached Japan. " Those people 
who make pictures of Japanese life 
do not tell the truth," 1 thought to 
myself, completely bewildered. When 
1 landed, 1 found large brick houses 
of a most occidental kind, and shops 
fitted out in the regular English style. 
Not only were the outward evidences 
of life most un-Japanese, but few of 



the people passing* up and down the 
street had the ahiiond eyes, the short, 
wiry hair, or the olive complexion that 
I had quitted America to see ; and 
young nurse girls wheeled about little 
carriages containing the same kind of 
babies that 1 had left three thousand 
miles away. Children in little trim 
English clothes, with their little Eng- 
lish bare legs, were walking about and 
occasionally disappearing behind Eng- 
lish hedges into houses of a distinctly 
Queen Anne type. 

While 1 was surveying all this with 
a startled air, 1 was delighted and re- 
lieved by the sight of several small 
Orientals who ran quickly up to the 
wharf, dragging behind them pecu- 
liar two-wheeled conveyances. Yes, 
after all, here was some indication of 
the thing for which I had been look- 
ing; these were men of Japan, it 
was true, but hardly the Japanese of 

19 



whom I had dreamed. They seemed 
rather out of place in this European 
city, and did not assume an aggres- 
sive air at all, as they politely offered 
to carry us to the hotel in their strange 
vehicles. 

The explanation of this state of 
affairs is, however, very satisfactory. 
When you reach Yokohama, you land 
at what is called the Settlement, which 
is the portion of the city set aside by 
the Government for the foreign resi- 
dents. Japan itself is situated back 
of this, and there, if you jump again 
into your jinrikisha and take another 
ride, you will find that it is Japan 
indeed. 

There is one great hotel at Yoko- 
hama, — a genuine European importa- 
tion, with large parlours, reading and 
sitting rooms, electric lights and bells. 
Your jinrikisha man immediately takes 
it for granted that you wish to stop 

20 



at the Grand Hotel, and without wait- 
ing for instructions, hurries you oflf 
to Ni-jiu-ban, as it is called in the 
vernacular. You will probably arrive 
during the season of travel, and so be 
enabled to see the house at its best. 
If one or two of the foreign ships are 
in the harbour, and the officers come 
ashore, a scene of unusual attractive- 
ness is sure to follow. A military 
band plays during dinner, commonly 
discoursing the patriotic airs of the 
diflferent nations, though a well-known 
western march is frequently inter- 
spersed. The rooms are trimmed 
with flowers; there are ladies in 
bright, pretty gowns, men in evening 
dress, and Japanese " boys " in blue 
tights, white coats, and stocking feet. 
The gathering is decidedly cosmopol- 
itan. You can talk with an American 
on stocks, an Englishman on golf, a 
Frenchman on Panama, or a Russian 

21 



on the Triple Alliance. If you only 
step out on the piazza and take a 
short stroll, you will have a tine op- 
portunity to gratify your taste for 
contrast, for it will be stepping from 
the Occident to the Orient. Perhaps 
the moon is shining — and the moon 
seems to shine differently in Japan 
than at home. There, below you, lies 
the land you thought you were being 
cheated out of; there are the small 
one-storied houses, the narrow streets, 
all bathed in the silence that so well 
tits your mood. A few lights are 
blinking below, but for the most 
part you see only what the moonlight 
cares to reveal. Off in the harbour are 
large shadowy forms which you know 
are western vessels, and your spirit 
feels a touch of old-fashioned patri- 
otism at the thought that one of them 
is flying the American flag. The 
sound of the music comes from the 

22 



distance, and you know that the danc- 
ing has begun ; but you care little at 
the present time for such occidental 
diversions. 

In the morning the sun will prob- 
ably be shining in a truly oriental way, 







-■^^ 



and you think it might be well to take 
a drive. Probably the tlrst thing you 
will see, will be a large number of 
young Japanese girls, apparently out 

23 



for a walk. Though they are clad in 
their own native costumes and have 
a general appearance that is decidedly 
Japanese, there is yet an air about 
them suggestive of the West. You 
puzzle over the matter for some time, 
and at last, with a sudden burst of 
intelligence, exclaim : " A boarding- 
school." And you are right; these 
young girls are being trained in the 
usages of the best English society, and 
have begun to dabble in French and 
algebra in a true boarding-school style. 
As they pass you by and you go on, you 
will see many small children attended 
by Japanese amahs, and baby carriages 
meet you everywhere. There are also 
a few shops scattered around, and 
looking to the left you will see the 
British flag waving above the marine 
hospital. A little further on, your 
heart gives a bound, for you see the 
stars and stripes waving in the breeze, 

24 



and you think that being an American 
is not so bad after all, whatever the 
foreigner may say of our confusion of 
" baggage " and " luggage " and our 
use of ice-water at dinner. It is the 
American hospital, a large, old-fash- 
ioned building, comfortable and home- 
like, with a garden tilled with flowers 
and tropical plants. You can look 
from here into the bay, and the ship 
so dimly perceived the night before, 
you see is the " Baltimore." You 
keep in the road, pass more Queen 
Anne houses and pretty green hedges, 
and an occasional bungalow ; and fur- 
ther on you meet a park that has been 
laid out by the foreigners. Here are 
more baby carriages and bare legged 
children, and several prettily arranged 
tennis courts in which the players are 
enjoying themselves in a genuine 
English way. 

It is probably a holiday, and the 
25 



people will soon turn out for a cele- 
bration, it is hard to tlnd a day in 
Japan that is not a holiday. It is well 
to know this before you visit the 
country, or you will be very much 
inconvenienced. You will be likely 
to visit the bank, and be much sur- 
prised to find it closed. '' Why ? " 
you will ask a friend, and he will 
answer : '' It is a holiday." And 
what is the day celebrated ? Perhaps 
the fall of the Bastile ; perhaps the 
discovery of the Gunpowder Plot; 
perhaps Washington's birthday, the 
Fourth of July, or one of the innumer- 
able sacred days of the Japanese. The 
trouble is that there are so many dif- 
ferent nationalities in Japan, each 
demanding that certain events be 
respectfully observed, that only on 
about one-third of the calendar days 
can business be transacted. It is a 
country of a perennial holiday. There 

26 



are a great many ways in which 
properly to observe these occasions, 
and a large number of entertainments 
are arranged. If you wish, you can 
attend the theatre, — not the an- 
ciently-established institution of the 
country, but a genuine play, such as 
you sometimes see in the Occident. 
I qualify the statement because 1 think 
it seldom that you will permit your- 
self to attend such execrable per- 
formances at home as draw crowded 
houses of intelligent people at Yoko- 
hama. They are given by strolling 
players on their way around the 
world, who stop at the principal Jap- 
anese cities and foist their wares upon 
a diversion-craving public. They en- 
tertain you with the misfortune of 
the " Forsaken Leah," the mistakes 
and unavailing repentance of " Bob 
Briley," the '' Ticket-of-leave-man," 
or you may have the opportunity of 

27 



weeping through five acts of " East 
Lynne," or "The Elopement." A 
minstrel show has been known to 
come ashore, and an exhibition of 
French marionettes is no uncommon 
sight. 

Perhaps your nature requires a dif- 
ferent kind of excitement ; if so, you 
may attend the races. These are car- 
ried on in the true English style, and 
are very generously patronised. The 
occasions are holidays in themselves, 
and offer a sufficient excuse for the 
closing of the banks and stores. A 
race track has been laid out back of 
the residence portion of the city, and 
has an additional attractiveness in the 
fact that it commands an excellent 
view of the elusive Fuji. Foreigners 
turn out in full force, many coming 
down from Tokio. Often the Mikado 
honours the affair with his presence ; 
he is always an interesting addition to 

28 



any event, but he is an inconvenient 
person to have around, owing to a 
peculiar phase of Japanese veneration. 
No one may hold his head higher than 
the Mikado, else his sacredness would 
be outraged ; and the many attempts 
to make him tower above the rest 
of the populace frequently produce 
amusing complications. Such a pre- 
dicament happened a short time ago, 
when the Mikado was on his way to 
the races. An American with more 
curiosity than knowledge of Japanese 
religious rites, thought it a tine op- 
portunity to catch a glimpse of the 
royal person, and so elevated himself 
upon a box near by and awaited the 
procession. He had stood there some 
time, flattering himself upon the differ- 
ence between American and Oriental 
intelligence, when his peace of mind 
was suddenly disturbed by a series of 
shouts, which, he divined from the 

29 



i;:-e5ricukitions. were directed towards 
himself. The constant motions to 
descend he reg-arded with a true Yan- 
kee stoicism, and it was not until the 
box was pulled from beneath his feet, 
that he was induced to pay the proper 
respect to the .Majesty of Japan. The 
races themselves, with the little shaggy- 
horses. ha\"e pro\ed to be a \er\- fer- 
tile means of entertainment. The 
riding is done to a considerable ex- 
tent by the little Japs, who take to it 
quite readily, and make verv accept- 
able jockeys. 

One of the most delightful events 
in the social life of the foreig^n resi- 
dents of Yokohama is Regatta Day. 
All their pent-up enthusiasm seems to 
let itself out, and the numerous visit- 
ing- vessels contribute to a most en- 
tertaining" scene. The contests take 
place in the spring:, and preparations 
are made many days in advance. The 

30 






"The dainty kimouo-chd forms.' 



vessels in the harbour are gayly deco- 
rated with flags and streamers ; the 
wealthier classes turn out in their car- 
riages, and the Bund is one mass of 
ladies and children in white dresses, 
intermingled by the dainty kimono- 
clad form of the Japanese. The hotel 
is impartially adorned with the colours 
of every nation, and the piazza is a 
varied scene of moving gayety. Every 
one does not attend the races behind 
the bluiT, but Regatta Day is the one 
event of the season, and furnishes an 
excuse for considerably more than the 
nautical contests. The races them- 
selves are perhaps not of sufficient 
importance to justify all this excite- 
ment, but Yokohama is very difl'er- 
ent from New York harbour. The day 
is bound to be clear, the sky is always 
of Italian deepness, and the sun never 
fails to shine down on the lively scene 
with a refreshing glow. 

3 33 



Domestic life in Japan has its in- 
conveniences ; but it has also its 
more advantageous side. Do you 
wish to live in splendid style on a 
small income ? You should dwell in 
the land where servants cost only 
four dollars a month. The life of the 
foreign residents in Japan is some- 
what mysterious; the position of the 
mistress of the household eluded my 
investigations for a long time. " What 
do you do ? " was a question 1 asked 
many of the ladies, but never re- 
ceived a satisfactory reply. After 
much thought 1 have come to the 
conclusion that the only thing your 
position requires of you is t(^«it in 
your parlour and amuse yourself as 
best you may ; and when you wish 
anything done, simply clap your hands 
and cry " Boy." 

This last word is the keynote to 
the situation. As soon as you have 

34 



learned the word " Boy," you have 
solved the whole problem of the Eu- 
ropean household in Japan. Every- 
thing centres around this important 
dignitary, whom even foreign innova- 
tion has not succeeded in abolishing. 
The '' Boy " has edged his way into 
every foreign home in Japan, and his 
position is as firmly established as the 
homes themselves. He is one of the 
most indispensable domestic function- 
aries that have figured in history. 
But, in the tlrst place, an excusable 
mistake must be corrected. The 
"Boy "is not a boy at all, but is 
simply called so in deference to cus- 
tom. Most of the "Boys" have 
large families of their own, and I have 
seen many with white hair and 
wrinkled faces. He never seems to 
resent this youthful title, and would 
feel very much bewildered should you 
suddenly begin to call him " Man." 

35 



He appreciates his important position 
very keenly ; he is no ordinary ser- 
vant, but a man with thoughts of his 
own and the dignity of a household 
resting upon his shoulders. 

The whole thing is managed some- 
what after this style : You receive 
an intimation that a few friends will 
dine with you, and this intimation is 
all about which you need trouble your- 
self. You never begin to think what 
you have to oflfer your guests, for you 
are not supposed to know anything 
about such things. You simply sit 
down, clap your hands and shout 
" Boy 1 " In a few moments the door 
will open and the person who bears 
this title presents himself. He ap- 
proaches, bows lowly, and makes a 
single ejaculation, — 

'' Heh ! " 

This simply means that he is all 
attention. If you are inexperienced, 

36 



you will get the idea that this word 
means " yes." But you will have 
many opportunities later to correct 
your mistake. The Japanese says 
" Heh ! " to signify that he is listening, 
and there his responsibility ends. He 
never commits himself. 

"I am going to have two friends 
to dinner," you reply, and you give 
their names. 

" Heh ! " 

He bows again, turns around, and 
leaves the room. That is all you have 
to do until the dinner hour arrives. 
Never make any suggestions ; the 
*' Boy " would be completely mysti- 
fied by such a proceeding. The way 
he goes about everything is very pic- 
turesque. You understand that the 
man who has just made his exit is the 
head " Boy " or No. 1 " Boy." He 
goes downstairs and begins to exam- 
ine the possibilities for the dinner. 

37 



Very likely he finds something lack- 
ing. If so, he immediately makes a 
call on No. 1 " Boy " next door, and 
returns with the supplementary dish 
needed to make the dinner a success. 
There exists a kind of free-masonry 
among the " Boys," and what one 
cannot find in his own domain he 
feels no hesitation in borrowing from 
a friend near by. Your " Boy " then 
visits the " Boys " of the friends who 
are to dine with you and makes many 
interesting inquiries. He asks what 
their favourite wines are, and never 
hesitates to request a loan of their 
plate and linen. He usually also de- 
mands the cooks of your friends, and 
leads them off to your house in order 
that the dinner may be more satisfac- 
torily prepared. Thus it happens 
that when your friends arrive they are 
very likely to eat your dinner cooked 
by their own servants and to see their 

38 



own china and linen gracing your 
table. More than this, the "Boys" 
of your friends are usually present and 
attend to their wants. The order of 
things will be reversed when you dine 
out. 

You see this " Boy " is a very con- 
venient and important person, and as 
he is usually an intelligent man, every- 
thing goes smoothly on. Occasion- 
ally a difficulty arises owing to the 
fact that he has not a sufficient regard 
for the mistress of the house, and 
indeed it is a question whether he 
ever looks upon her as such. Japan 
has not yet learned to rate women at 
their true worth, and it is this senti- 
ment that is at the bottom of the 
" Boy's " reluctance to take orders 
from anyone but a man. Most of 
them are gradually coming around and 
will obey you, but a few conservative 
souls still remain. 1 had a friend who 

39 



possessed a very worthy *' Boy," 
whose character was blemished by 
this one defect. She told him one 
day to remove a plant into an adjoin- 
ing room. He bowed, said " Heh ! " 
and departed. Some hours passed, 
and the plant was still unmoved. He 
was called in again, again he bowed, 
ejaculated the usual '' Heh ! " and left 
the room. My friend tried this 
several times, and succeeded in getting 
more bows and more " Hehs ! " but 
the plant remained where it had been. 
She spoke to her husband about the 
matter, who called in the " Boy " and 
told him to remove the object of the 
dispute. The "Boy" bowed, said 
" Heh I " took the plant and carried it 
into an adjoining room. When asked 
to explain his previous disobedience, 
he said : " I will do it if master wishes 
it, heh ! " and with a profound obei- 
sance he retired. 

40 



Another great enemy to domestic 
life is what is known as the " Squeeze." 
This is not peculiar to the household, 
but is found in every part of the Jap- 
anese social system. The whole busi- 
ness of the country is run on a 
commission. Every time you buy 
anything, you have to pay several 
"squeezes," or commissions, to the 
various people concerned in the trans- 
action. No "Boy" will run an er- 
rand without his " squeeze," and he 
uses a great deal of liberty in your 
domestic accounts. Should you send 
him out to buy a bouquet of flowers, 
he would always charge you as well as 
the florist a " squeeze " in the reckon- 
ing. The butcher who deals with you 
has to pay him a certain amount, and 
of course you are the one who suffers 
in the end. This is altogether inde- 
pendent of the profit of the goods, 
and often is little more than a per- 

41 



sonal consideration. Foreigners have 
made war many times against the 
" squeeze," but their efforts have been 
unsuccessful. It seems to be a second 
nature with the Japanese ; it is one 
of those good old customs that they 
will not let die. I had an iconoclastic 
friend who resolved that there should 
be no '' squeezes " to impede her do- 
mestic calculations, and who decided 
upon a reform. She thought that she 
would begin modestly at first, and 
hit upon the lamps to experiment on. 
There is a very humble person whose 
occupation it is to go from door to 
door and fill all the lamps of his cus- 
tomers, but his pay is not too small 
to necessitate a little " squeeze " to 
the head "Boy" for the privilege. 
The lady in question decided to hire 
this boy directly, and for a time she 
thought the plan was succeeding re- 
markably well. One day, however, 

42 



she found that her head " Boy " had 
a pleasing custom of making a round 
of the lamps every morning and re- 
moving a certain quantity of the oil. 
By selling what he procured this way, 
he recovered the " squeeze " of which 
he had been defrauded. 

The specialising tendency of the 
people is another thing particularly 
irritating to those who live in Japan. 
Such a thing as a man-of-all-work 
who goes around picking up odd 
jobs is an unknown phenomenon. 
You must have a large number of ser- 
vants or you will get nothing done. 
A certain " Boy " puts the coal in the 
stove and another cooks the dinner. 
But the '' Boy " who does the cook- 
ing would never touch the coal, if 
you had a dozen guests waiting up- 
stairs. It is a matter of caste, and one 
occupation is immeasurably superior 
to another; at least, in the opinion 

43 



of him who practises it. You have 
a "Boy" who takes care of the 
horses, but he would not understand 
you at all should you ask him to 
drive them. If a light needs turning 
up, and you request your head " Boy" 
to do it, he would never think of 
obeying. He would rather run two 
blocks to fetch the menial whose du- 
ties are along that line. I was told 
a story of a lady on shipboard, who 
requested her attending "Boy" to 
close an open port-hole. He answered 
" Heh ! " and went out to search for 
the servant who attended to such mat- 
ters. It took him fifteen minutes to 
find him, but he finally led him tri- 
umphantly in, and the port-hole was 
closed. It had never occurred to the 
former that he ought to do it himself ; 
he had not been educated to that po- 
sition in society, and it would have 
grated harshly against his sense of 

44 



the fitness of things to suggest that 
he was fully qualified to close port- 
holes. Every Japanese has a great 
pride in his task, knows his own 
place, and thinks that the greatest 
requirement of a virtuous life is that 
he does not interfere with the duties 
of others. 










•"^X 



MJ\'J' 



[I PI Rf F'^lWv^ 



45 



SHOPPING. 








i ^Jl^* 



SHOPPING. 

Y^OU will have many friends who 
^ will give you a great deal of 
kindly advice before you leave for 
Japan. On no point will their sug- 
gestions be as plentiful as on the 
mooted question of shopping. With 
a knowledge born of experience, they 
will inform you that these almond- 
eyed Orientals are not the guileless 
souls that they may seem, and that 

4 49 



beneath all their gentleness of man- 
ners there lies a keen wit which 
will tax your American sharpness to 
the utmost. They may perhaps go 
further and descend to particulars, 
and you will have the opportunity of 
learning the number of tricks you 
will be subjected to and the large 
amount of wares that are being re- 
served until you land. All this advice 
you will carefully note, and think that 
when you start down the streets of 
Tokio or Yokohama you have an ad- 
vantage over your compatriots, and 
that you are secure from the dangers 
of early shopping in a new country. 
You have all the words of your friend 
in mind, and decide to wait several 
days before you make a single pur- 
chase. At about this point of your 
self-congratulations you will catch 
sight of a small two-story building, 
and for some inconceivable reason be 



attracted within. Perhaps it is the 
dainty sign over the door; perhaps 
the smiling- face of the host, who 
looks upon you with so inviting an 
air; perhaps the ever-attendant evil 
spirit of shopping that has begun to 
work his baneful spell. At any rate, 
in a short time you find yourself in 
a small room surrounded by a delight- 
ful collection of 
bric-a-brac, with 
a cup of tea in ..,g^.^- 
your hand and * x 

the happy face " 

of the proprietor 
beaming down 
upon you. An 

hour or two slips by, and when you 
leave you will suddenly discover that 
you have ordered a large part of the 
merchant's wares, and that you have a 
neat little bill smilingly presented to 
you. It is not until you are in the 

51 



street again, or perhaps easefully re- 
posing in your room at the hotel, that 
the whole terrible truth flashes upon 
you. You have done just what you 
were told not to do, and just what you 
had considered yourself firmly guarded 
against. A horrible suspicion crosses 
your mind. What if all those charm- 
ing things you bought belonged to 
the worthless class your friend had 
so conscientiously warned you of; 
and what if the genial smile of the 
merchant were but the mask of a 
deceiving heart? In a day or two 
your suspicion will have been con- 
firmed. The goods that you so 
rashly purchased will be given as a 
present to your attending " Boy," and 
your shopping henceforth will be- 
come rather a scientific than an emo- 
tional affair. 

The Japanese are rapidly learning 
the proper use to be made of tourists, 

52 



and are always ready to receive them. 
You will not have been long in your 
room when a gentle knock will be 
heard at the door, and a most ob- 
sequious Oriental will make his en- 
trance. He will bow with the utmost 
profoundness, and present you with 
a card which contains his name and 
crest, — usually in the form of a 
teacup or fan. You return his gaze as 
kindly as possible. He says : " Please 
you come see my shop," makes another 
bow, and retires. The whole scene is 
not unpleasing to you, and you are 
thinking it over as an interesting 
experience when another knock is 
heard. Another Jap of the same ap- 
pearance as your former visitor now 
enters, makes a similar bow, gives 
you his card, says : " Please you come 
see my shop," and as gracefully takes 
his leave. If you are wise you will 
now determine to receive no more 

53 



callers, for this sort of thing will be 
kept up all day, and you will have a 
varied assortment of cards before the 
evening conies. Your new friends 
are most scrupulously polite and have 
no air of bluster or eagerness; but 
they are quietly persistent, and would 
not think of passing you by without 
giving you a chance to learn of the 
advantages of their house. They 
keep a careful watch for the arrival 
of every new steamer, and trace all 
the passengers to the diflferent hotels. 
The reputation of the American as 
the generous spender of millions is 
as firmly fixed in the minds of the 
Japanese as in those of less distant 
lands, and to them they give a large 
amount of attention. 

Indeed, it is generally assumed by 
everyone you meet that you have 
come to Japan to shop, and the 
kindest favour he can do you is to 

54 



show you how and where you can 
do so with the best results. Even 
the humble coolie, who carries you 
around in your jinrikisba, firmly be- 
lieves this, and thinks that if he is in 
a small measure the means of your 
making a happy purchase, his way 
into your affections is won. If you 
tell him in the morning that you wish 
to take a ride, he will tuck you com- 
fortably in and start at a rapid pace 
towards the main thoroughfare of the 
city. You will be quietly enjoying 
everything you see, and will, perhaps, 
be somewhat surprised when the 
coolie suddenly stops before one of 
those two-story buildings with which 
you are now so familiar, and glances 
up into your face with the most self- 
congratulating expression. If you do 
not immediately descend and enter 
the shop, he will suddenly become 
crestfallen, and wear a look that 

55 



means that 3^ou are quite unable to 
appreciate a favour, and do not know 
a good thing when you see it. The 
chances are, however, that you will 
feel an invisible force attracting you 
within the little shop, and so leave 
your coolie without, a happy man. 

If you are in Japan during a period 
of silver depression, you are a very 
unfortunate person indeed. You 
have perhaps visited the bank the 
day before and changed a thousand 
dollars of your gold into two thou- 
sand dollars of silver, and this un- 
expected increase in your worldly 
possessions is the very worst thing 
that could have happened to you. 
For you are likely to get the idea 
that you can now afford to be a little 
extravagant ; that you have just twice 
as much money as you had before, 
and that you would be a very stingy 
person, did you not scatter a little of 

56 



it about. You have probably, how- 
ever, one advantage in the fact that 
you have shopped before, and do not 
think that there is much danger that 
the experience of a few days ago will 
be repeated. By this time your re- 
spect for your anxious friend, who so 
vainly gave you his advice, has greatly 
increased ; and you decide that when 
you return you will make a point of 
breathing the same gentle counsel in 
the ears of all you meet who are on 
their way to the land of the cherry- 
blossom and the almond-eyed sharper. 
The street in which most of the 
shops are found has the delicious 
local flavour that seldom fails to en- 
tice the unwary purchaser. The 
thoroughfare is very narrow, and is 
lined by two rows of shed-like build- 
ings adorned in front by hanging 
cloth signs. Many of these signs 
are inscribed with the name of the 

57 



keeper, who does not confine himself 
to the Japanese characters, but fre- 
quently spells himself out in English, 
— a thing that you are likely to take 
as a personal compliment to yourself. 
The cloths are also sometimes cov- 
ered with emblematic figures repre- 
sentative of the goods sold within. 
There are grotesque and unheard 
of birds; armour, and paintings repre- 
senting the god of money and good 
luck. The lower story of the house 
is probably open to the street, but it 
is sometimes hidden by a curtain of 
blue and white, which an attendant 
lifts to allow you to enter. Really, 
there is nothing in all this that tells 
you of the treasures that lie beyond, 
but you have a sensation which for 
the time being seems uncontrollable. 
Sometimes, on a holiday, the whole 
scene may be changed, and by the 
addition of a large number of paper 
^8 



lanterns and clusters of wistaria and 
cherry-blossoms an element of festiv- 
ity is introduced. But the grotesque 
methods of advertising that you are 
familiar with as an American, are un- 
known to the Japanese, and utterly 
distasteful to their sense of propriety. 
Even in the marking of prices they 
exercise the greatest taste, using little 
thin strips of cloth with the cost of 
the article painted in blue. This, 
however, you do not see until you 
enter the shop. The proprietor will 
receive you with the utmost polite- 
ness, but there is no sign of unpleas- 
ant aggressiveness in his behaviour. 
He views your visit both from a 
social and business point of view, 
and esteems your notice of him as a 
personal favour. Even though you do 
not buy, he always takes pleasure in 
showing what he has to sell. He 
likes to have you show some appre- 

59 



ciation of his goods ; and if you have 
done this, you can leave without 
buying a thing and be sure of as 
warm a welcome when you return. 
One demand he will make of you, 
and that is, that you take plenty of 
time. He likes to talk and discuss, 
and seems dissatisfied unless you 
consider the transaction as one of 
great importance and worthy of much 
meditation. The hurried visits that 
he sometimes receives from Ameri- 
cans, who rush in and wish to do 
everything in a few moments, utterly 
bewilder him. He is willing to spend 
a whole day with a single customer, 
and never shows any impatience ex- 
cept when you are in a hurry. He 
greets you with a profound bow, and 
smilingly places his shop at your dis- 
posal. He usually has one or two 
assistants who keep at a respectful 
distance until their services are re- 

6q 



quired. The host is very quiet, and 
does not begin to praise everything 
in the room, but cahiily calls your 




attention to each article, and relies 
upon your ov^n good taste to see its 
virtues. His first floor is usually 
given up to a large display of ancient 

6i 



armour and swords, each piece with a 
history of its own, and speaking ter- 
rible tales of the good old tlghting 
days of the Shoguns. There are 
grotesque and grinning masks that 
the most stoical temperament cannot 
gaze at without shuddering, and fre- 
quent representations of the Japanese 
conception of the Devil that make 
you suddenly turn your back and 
become interested in something of a 
less religious aspect. The weapons 
are what delight many a warlike 
spirit ; Japan has always been fa- 
mous for its steel, and many of these 
swords might make one think that 
the days of the famous blades of old 
had returned. All these are now, of 
course, as antique to the Japanese as 
to ourselves, for their usefulness, ex- 
cept as interesting curios, has been 
replaced by the more prosaic imple- 
ments of modern warfare. 

62 



If you are a woman you will not 
be likely to buy any of these arti- 
cles of war, and you will find it a 
relief to escape the fiery eyes and 
low-hanging tongue of that mask in 
the corner. The proprietor calls your 
attention to a rickety staircase, and 
invites you to ascend into the second 
story. By so doing, you will soon 
find yourself in a little room which 
reveals altogether a diflferent sight 
to the one below. You have left 
the domain of war and blood, and 
are now surrounded by suggestions 
of religion and art. There are Bud- 
dhas of every kind, — wooden, bronze, 
and gold ; there are dainty little tea- 
pots, porcelains, candlesticks, and 
altar-pieces, to satisfy the most exact- 
ing taste; there are highly-polished 
mirrors gracing the walls, and another 
collection of swords, of a perhaps less 
warlike appearance than those below.. 

63 



The scene has graceful touches, for 
the small children of the family are 
huddled together on the floor, amus- 
ing themselves with such Japan- 
ese playthings as grasshoppers and 
crickets. These are their dolls, and 
they would never lay them aside for 
the less animated toys of the Western 
world. The wife of the proprietor 
is always at hand, who supplements 
the bows of her husband with 
dimpled smiles of her own, and who 
treats you with a respect that is not 
too distant to be friendly. She is 
sitting on the floor in front of a small 
bibachi. You have not been in the 
room long before you hear that little 
quiet steaming that you now know 
so well, and soon the little woman 
rises and, with a smile and bow, 
leaves the room. 

All this is very delightful, and it 
requires all your presence of mind 

64 




"The wife of the Proprietor." 



and the recollections of a previous 
day's experience to keep you from 
falling into a snare. You know very 
well that all these dazzling things 
about you have more glitter than 
gold, and that they are manufactured 
expressly for unknowing foreigners, 
such as you are assumed to be. You 
may be sure, that there are finer 
goods than these, kept carefully out 
of sight. The merchants never dis- 
play their choicest wares on the 
shelves, but have them neatly tied 
up in boxes in an adjoining room. 
In some way you hint to your suave 
friend that you have shopped before, 
and are perfectly familiar with the 
peculiar tricks of the trade. All this 
he receives with an intelligent smile, 
and asks you to seat yourself. If 
you look around for a chair you will 
betray yourself as less experienced 
than you claim, so you had better 

67 



drop at once on your heels ; for by 
doing so, you will immediately gain 
a point in the good graces of your 
host. 

And now a delicate patter is heard 
on the stairs, and the little woman 
who left a few moments ago returns. 
She has a small tray full of cups and 
sweetmeats, which she deposits on 
the floor as she sits down in front 
of you. The proprietor joins the 
group, and occasionally one or two 
of the children forego their grass- 
hoppers and crickets, and supply the 
sole element lacking to a very pretty 
domestic picture. The tea is now 
poured out; you are expected to 
drink several cups, else the shopping 
that is to follow would not be a 
success. The host says many pretty 
things, rejoices at the fact that you 
are an American, and thinks your 
country the crowning triumph of 

68 



modern civilization. He trusts that 
your health is as good as your rosy 
cheeks and sparkling eyes would lead 
one to believe, and that nothing will 
happen to make your journey in 
Japan anything but one of the de- 
lightful memories of your after-life. 
Meanwhile you sip the pale drink, 
nibble at the cakes and candies, think 
your charming new friend not the 
crafty schemer you know him to be, 
and are almost led to believe that you 
have come not so much on business 
as for the sake of making a morning 
call. 

But now the host claps his hands, 
and an attendant appears from a rear 
room, bearing several neat-appearing 
boxes in his arms. The goods that 
you have come to buy are in these 
little square affairs, but you are al- 
most as much interested in the boxes 
themselves as in what they contain. 

69. 



They are daintily made of light 
wood, and are not disfigured by the 
clumsy nails or cracks that do not 
annoy our less aesthetic merchant 
of the West. When the attendant 
begins to remove the wares your 
appreciation of the artistic shop- 
keeper increases, for everything is 
daintily wrapped up in cloth of alter- 
nate red and yellow sides. Japanese 
paper is of a much choicer kind than 
ours, but no self-respecting merchant 
would ever think of using it to cover 
his wares. You become very familiar 
with this yellow cloth before you 
leave the country, for it is as generally 
used as our less artistic substitute at 
home. 

Perhaps you know what you want 
and perhaps you don't, but it will 
make no diflference to the proprietor, 
who prefers that you take plenty of 
time. He says very little in praise 

70 



of what he puts before you, though 
occasionally he will unaggressively 
remark on the particular qualities of 
an unusually charming article of bric- 
a-brac or roll of silk, or drop a word 
on the depth of colour and finish of a 
piece of gold lacquer ; nor is he will- 
ing to let an occasional piece of Sat- 
suma pass by without calling your 
attention to its delicate shade and 
crackle. 

This goes on for some time, until 
your eye alights on something that you 
must have, and then the most interest- 
ing feature of the performance begins ; 
for a Japanese merchant is entirely 
out of harmony with the one-price 
system of the West, and would never 
think of asking the actual amount 
for which he will really sell his wares. 
He has his price, it is true, but this 
is only for those of small experience, 
and from others he seldom hopes to 

71 



get more than one-third to one-half 
of what he asks. Never think, how- 
ever, that you get the best of him, 
for there is always a limit below 
which he will never go. Friends of 
mine have reached this limit, and 
their most persistent efforts have 
never succeeded in making the shop- 
keeper less firm. They would drop 
into the shop morning after morning 
and renew their offer; the merchant 
would smile, but remain unshaken. 
If you stay very long in Japan you 
will become so accustomed to this 
haggling practice, that you will ac- 
quire a habit you will have difficulty 
in shaking off. When, after 1 re- 
turned home, a dry-goods-store clerk 
told me that the price of a certain ar- 
ticle was fifteen dollars, I could hardly 
keep from replying, " I '11 give you ten." 
" How much will you sell me this 
for?" you inquire at last, perhaps 

72 



picking up a piece of delicate bric-a- 
brac, which in your fond imagination 
you already see gracefully reposing 
on your library table at home. 

The shopkeeper looks at it sharply 
with his little eyes for some time, 
then answers with a smile, — 

" Sixty jv//." 

Your hands go up in horror. 
" What ? " you frantically exclaim ; 
but the merchant answers you with 
another smile. Your emotion, how- 
ever, is as feigned as the shopkeeper's 
apparent firmness, for you know that 
it will be an easy matter to make him 
reduce the price, — the main question 
being whether your limit will be the 
same as his. The chances are that he 
will take just about one-third what 
he asks, and make a handsome profit 
then. So, you with the proper spirit 
decide to take him at an even lower 
figure and reply, — 

73 



" I will give you fifteen." 

The dejected air that suddenly 
spreads over his face is the kind of 
which a Japanese merchant is alone 
capable. He gives a great sigh and 
gazes at you with a look that seems 
to ask if you were born without a 
heart. His emotion is so great that 
he may even rise, walk around the 
shop, and examine several of his dearly 
beloved curios that have not been 
subjected to such outrageous treat- 
ment. He will soon return, however, 
and, with the humblest voice in the 
world and a sadly withered smile, 
announce his ultimatum, — 

" Will give for thirty j^en.'' 

You shake your head, push the rare 
object aside, and rise. You do not 
intend to go, but you begin to look 
at a diflferent line of goods. The 
shopkeeper has not lost his polite- 
ness, and he takes the utmost pains 

74 



in showing a large number of things 
that he knows you never intend to 
buy. During all this you and he 
occasionally cast furtive glances at 
the object of your disagreement, but 
neither one for a long time makes 
any allusion to it. Finally, the mo- 
ment comes for you to go, but you 
decide to make one more attempt, 
which you know will be effectual. 
Picking up the dainty bronze, you say 
in an off-hand manner that you will 
give him twenty yen. 

He looks at you sadly, and then 
again at the object in your hands. 
He casts his eyes at the ceiling, be- 
stows a glance upon his innocent 
children playing with grasshoppers 
and crickets, all unaware that they 
are being defrauded of an inheritance, 
makes the bow of humiliation, and 
says with a short gasp, — 

'* I am resigned." 
75 



After he has expressed his emotions 
in this unvarying phrase, his spirits 
seem once more to return. He smiles 
again in his old way, and his bows 
have the old obsequiousness. He 
even gives you another cup of tea, 
and in other ways betrays the secret 
satisfaction that he feels on having 
made a very good bargain. He fol- 
lows you down the stairs to the 
2iW2i\tmg finn'kisba and bids you fare- 
well with the most touching ''Sa}'o- 
nara'' that you have yet heard. As 
you slowly ride away, the last thing 
you see is his bowing form in the 
door, and you give a sigh at the 
thought that all this display of friend- 
ship is but owing to the fact that 
you have probably paid twice what 
you should for the dainty bronze 
statue that is to adorn your library at 
home. 



76 



■^ 



^.o^.^6^j3',.; 







OUR DINNER AT KIOTO. 







OUR DINNI:I<' Al KIOIO. 



r~\\ course, it could hardly be ex- 
^^^ pected that our dinner would 
be Japanese in all its features, but, 
it was not only our embarrassment 
at our surroundings that prevented it 
from bein^^ so. The appearance of 
our host himself in side-whiskers was 
enough to 'f^'wt an un-oriental air to 
the ceremony, and clearly indicated 
the peculiar mixture of the East and 
West of which his character pre- 

6 8i 



scnls a sdilviu!^" example. For he had 
visited exlensivelv in America, where 
he had pertormed hi^^h diplomatic 
timet ions and carried back many of 
our (laits, not the least evident ol 
which were the whiskers above re- 
lerred to. li was also unnecessary 
to use an interpreter when talkini^* 
with him, as he spoke our lans^uaj^e 
easily and well. As tar as polite- 
ness went, however, he was entirely 
Japanese. 1 have an indelinite rec- 
ollectiiMi ol" him as an embodiment 
ot smiles and bows; his manners 
were perlect, his voice was ol" un- 
usual sweetness. lie had a keen 
nu'nd and kept a watchlul e\e on us 
duriuj^" the eveniui^-. in order that the 
straui^eness ot" our situation should 
add rather a teeliui:" ot" pleasantness 
than ot discomfort. 

lie was a man far advanced in the 
ideas of new Japan, and he had i^one 

82 



so far as to adopt I he Huropean cos- 
tume. But this cvcnin.i( he had casi 
it aside and appeared in all the splen- 
dor of a Japanese host. After we 
had travelled under the direction of 
a little musmce wilh a li.i^hled candle, 
throu.i(h a !on.i(, arched lane, we sud- 
denly found ourselves before a small 
house and heard the mosl un-oriental 
of all words : " Good evenin^^" We 
looked up, and Ihere slood our hosl 
between two wicker panels which he 
had thrust aside, wilh his handsome 
face smilin,i( the most cordial of wel- 
comes. He wore the conventional 
divided skirl, and over this a kimono 
of dark ^^rey, cau^^^ht to^^^ether in front 
with a cord. His foot-^^'^ear was the 
customary sandals, which, however, 
he did not wear durin^^^ the evenin)^^ 
Of course he did not have his wife 
with him, for even his pro,i(ressivc 
spirit had not reached the poini where 

«3 



he could allow any feminine super- 
vision of his feast. The hostess is 
unknown in Japan, where domestic- 
ity does not play the part it should. 
We had another proof of this in the 
invitations we received, which did 
not invite us to our host's house, but 
to one of the swell restaurants of 
Kioto. For a Japanese to entertain 
at his own house would be a social 
barbarism. 

The length of the Major — one of 
our party — was often inconvenient 
in Japan, and I saw him casting 
troubled glances at the house before 
which we found ourselves, it was 
very small, and when we finally en- 
tered he found it necessary to stoop 
in order to get in at all. We did not 
gain an entrance immediately, for we 
found an obstacle in our way in the 
form of the little musmee who had 
conducted us thither. Before start- 

84 



ing, the two ladies of the party had 
debated for a long time what foot- 
gear they should wear, being faced 
by the American extreme of shoes 
and the Japanese extreme of stocking 
feet. They congratulated themselves 
that they had hit upon a happy solu- 
tion, by wearing their party slippers; 
but when they arrived they found 
that they had miscalcu- 
lated. As they 
stepped upon 
the platform 
and were 
about to en- 
ter the room, 
the little musmee's 
hands went up in horror. 
We can only appreciate her 
feelings by imagining our 
own, should one of our call- 
ers elevate his feet upon the parlor 
furniture. Should they desecrate her 

85 




spotless white mats with their barbar- 
ous American slippers ? Our poor host 
had his hands full, trying to pacify the 
little enraged body, and at the same 
time to act towards us as though this 
outburst was one of the regularly- 
planned features of the dinner. His 
ever present smiles were still more in 
requisition, and he could not bow 
enough in his endeavour to make us 
feel at ease. Suddenly, there came a 
calm ; the little maid withdrew, and 
we were bidden in a most polite way 
to enter. The offended girl, however, 
sulked away like an angry child, and 
1 am convinced that if we made any 
enemies in our trips in Japan, the 
little miismee at this restaurant was 
one of them. 

This was the first Japanese house 
I had ever been in, and naturally I 
was interested to see what it was 
like. It was oriental in every way. 



though by no means an example of 
oriental splendor. At one end there 
was a platform on which incense was 
burning, and the walls were entirely 
bare but for two paper kakemonos. 
The floor was covered with white 
matting, on which were placed black 
velvet cushions. These were our 
seats for the dinner, and each of us 
was supplied, in addition, with a black 
lacquered candlestick. For some time 
we stood there waiting for the host to 
begin, but as we afterwards learned, 
it is customary at Japanese social 
functions for that dignitary to follow. 
He smilingly requested us to be seated 
as quietly as though he was bidding 
us to four hours in Paradise, and not 
to the physical discomfort — almost 
torture — that it proved to be. The 
ladies seated themselves with little 
trouble, but things did not go so 
well with the poor Major. His legs 

87 



formed a large part of a body that 
measured considerably over six feet, 
and as those six feet had to be dis- 
posed of picturesquely in a sitting 
posture, you will see that we had 
almost a tragedy on hand. The Major 
made several spasmodic attempts, and 
finally threw himself down in a life- 
less heap in a way that furnished our 
host new cause for smiles and bows. 
For all this the scene in which we 
found ourselves had its romantic 
side. It was early in the evening of 
a beautiful night in April, the Japan- 
ese June. The wicker panels of the 
house were thrown open, and the 
warm air came through, scented with 
the perfume of the cherry-blossoms 
and bearing delicate sounds from the 
garden without. We could see the 
stars from where we sat, and they 
had that warm, melting lustre that 
one sometimes sees at home, but 

88 




ese taste. 



which 
is charac- 
teristic of an 
oriental night. In 
front of the house 
was one of those famous 
miniature gardens that 
embody the dainty Japan- 
A small, sparkling lake was 
bordered by the sacred cherry-trees, 
which were in full bloom ; a passing 
breeze had blown many of the blos- 
soms upon the surface of the water. 
The shores were covered with dwarf 
trees and a few sprays of pansies. All 
of this we could clearly see, for the 
moon gleamed down upon the scene 
with just enough brightness to render 
all distinct without removing any of 
the enchantment. From the distance 

89 



we could hear the faint tinkling of a 
waterfall. Even the Major's uncom- 
fortable state of body could not pre- 
vent him from catching the poetic 
flavour of all this. But there was 
more romance ahead. We all felt a 
disappointment when our host dropped 
the oriental manner of salutation and 
simply bowed profoundly; but now 
we were soon to have Eastern respect 
at its fullest. Two masmees entered, 
and, falling on their hands and knees, 
touched their tlower-bedecked heads to 
the floor. In this respectful attitude they 
remained before us for some seconds, 
while we wondered whether the occa- 
sion demanded any action on our part, 
when, suddenly, they rose and presented 
us with handleless cups full of tea — 
for every dinner in Japan begins with 
tea. I looked at the host in despair. 
" Ah ! I will explain," he said, with 

90 



a laugh, and he did so. This is the 
way you do it : you place the cup in 
the pahiis of both hands, twist the 
fingers into a supporting position 
(I do not yet fully understand it), and 
drink between the thumbs. If you 
are well-enough bred, you will do 
this with the utmost ease; but if you 
are not, you may land the tea in your 
lap, break the china cup, and be put 
down as an extremely low person. 
Of course, the fact that we were 
foreigners warded oflf any harsh judg- 
ment ; and besides, I really believe we 
all of us did manage somehow to get 
through the crisis in a way that was 
not entirely disgraceful. 

Japanese ^stheticism extends to 
their dinners, which are extremely 
graceful affairs. Our host, for ex- 
ample, had divided this dinner into 
four parts, each typical of a season 
of the year. In this was a hidden 

91 



coini^liiiK'nl ; ho inlciuicd (luis (o ex- 
press his YCi^ici dial vvc were unable 
(() speikl (he w hole year in Kiolo, and 
his hopes (ha( (his evenirii^'s pleasure 
wouLl oiler as s^ood a subsliUile as 
possible. And in spile ol" oui un- 
eonilorlable alliludes and (he sdans^e- 
noss ol many ol (he dishes plaeed 
before us, 1 do no( (hink he was 
enlirely unsueeesslul. Nol Ihe leas! 
pleasant pari ol" Ihe dinner, lor ex- 
ample, was (hal which ininiedialely 
followed Ihe tea drinkins^-. We had 
hardly handed Ihe eups back to Ihe 
/////>■///> v.s", when they s^a\e to each ol 
us a beautiful wicker basket tilled 
with tloweis, — that, al least, is what 
we thous^hl they were, until we 
discovered that they were without 
smell. In fact, it iook us some time 
to find out dial they were nol tlow'- 
ers at all, but most ex^iuisile candy 
imitations. They were more than 

9- 



confectionery — they were true works 
of art. 

But there were other surprises in 
store for us. As we sat admiring 
these delicate creations, the doors at 
the rear suddenly opened, and a liv- 
ing wave of colour came fluttering in. 
At first we could distinguish nothing 
but a flock of miniature bats, storks, 
and other creatures which figure ex- 
clusively in Japanese natural history, 
disporting themselves among dainty 
representations of purple violets, dan- 
delions, and white and pink cherry- 
blossoms. After recovering from our 
first surprise we saw that these were 
small pieces of embroidery on a back- 
ground of pale greys and shaded blues, 
and then we caught sight of waving 
loops of hair in which were inter- 
twined sprays of flowers and fancy 
pins. This delicate yet somewhat con- 
fused mass drew nearer, and we saw 

93 



live lilllc laces painted entirely white 
with the exception of clearly-detlned 
spots ol red under the eyes and h'ps, 
that were made particularly small by 
a skilful handlini^ of the brush. We 
could but ejaculate one word : 
''Geisha I ^^ These were the famous 
dancini,^ i^irls of Japan, who lead, 1 
fear, not too happy lives in lurnish- 
iuii* much of the enjoyment of Japan- 
ese social life. II is only ordinary 
people who frequent the theatre in 
this country, and it falls upon these 
little creatures lo furnish the \\\g\\tx 
classes a larj^e part of their amuse- 
ment. They dance, they sing, they 
joke, act as waiters, and are j^^enerally 
expected to supply the element of 
gaiety without which no dinner can 
be thought complete. 

The Japanese do not walk, they 
flutter; they do not sit down, they 
sink. Each of these delicate bits of 

94 



humanity bearin^^ a small lacquered 
tray sank down before the .i(uest she 
was to serve. They were continually 
lau^Wiiii,i( and chattering amon^ them- 
selves, makin^^ naive criticisms of our 
costumes and of ourselves — for the 
freisbas are .i(iven a ^^reat deal oi 
freedom. They were particularly in- 
quisitive about the ladies' dresses, 
and even went so far as to ask, 
throu.^^i the interpreter, the cost of 
them. They also were anxious to 
know whether the Americans made 
them themselves, and how lon^^ it 
took. These materialistic thou,c(hts 
changed when they caught sight of the 
ladies' diamonds, which they romanti- 
cally imagined to have grown on trees. 
They made endless remarks about us 
which we did not understand, and 
from the interpreter's unwillingness to 
translate many of their speeches, I am 

95 



sure the little fault-finders saw much 
in us to criticise. 

And now the dinner began in ear- 
nest. By our sides we discovered 




mysterious packages done 
up in paper, which we were 
horrified to find contained chop- 
sticks. This was worse than drinking 
tea between your thumbs. It was my 
first experience with these utensils, 
and I hardly thought myself in a well- 
chDsen place to learn their mysterious 
qualities. I was greatly surprised, 
however, to find that it was not so 
difficult as it looked, and that chop- 

96 



sticks, after all, are not the impossible 
things the untutored suppose. We 
had a hard dish to begin on ; for after 
we had got our chop-sticks in battle 
array, the geishas startled us by bring- 
ing in soup. More smiles from the 
host, and more explanations. All you 
have to do is to eat the solid part with 
the chop-sticks and drink the liquid as 
you drink tea. The soup was politely 
christened " Congratulatory," and 
was made of green turtle, which is 
popularly supposed to live a thousand 
years — another compliment for us. 
And now that I have begun the 
menu, 1 may as well say that the 
succeeding dishes included fish and 
eels, and an unprecedented number of 
soups, cooked a la Japoiiaise, partic- 
ularly one made of seaweeds, in 
which their taste was by no means 
concealed. And there w^ere wines, 

bomei, wiiich the Japanese regard as 
7 97 



a kind of medicine to prepare the 
stomach for the food, and saki, the 
national drink, not dissimilar in ap- 
pearance and taste to a pale, dry 
sherry. 

At this point we were surprised by 
the arrival of another guest. He had 
been invited to meet us as a friend 
of our host, but for some reason had 
been detained and had sent his ex- 
cuses. He was clad in the same 
costume as our host and had also 
adopted the occidental whiskers, 
though his were grey. He was not 
sufhciently Europeanised, however, to 
omit the Japanese salutation, and con- 
sequently prostrated himself " on all 
fours" before us. He further mysti- 
fied our minds by presenting each of 
our party with his card. We looked 
at our host in despair, who explained 
that it was customary on such occa- 
sions to exchange cards. But we had 

98 



failed to bring any along, and there- 
fore had to apologise ourselves out of 
the difficulty as best we could. Of 
course, our excuses met with the cus- 
tomary smiles. 

" We hope you will be able to visit 
our country sometime," one of us 
had inspiration enough to say through 
the interpreter the new arrival had 
brought with him. 

" I have been there already," he re- 
plied. 

"And how did he like it?" 

" It is a very beautiful country, and 
I hope to go back again sometime." 

Though the conversation was sat- 
isfactory, the inconvenience always 
occasioned by the use of an inter- 
preter prevented it from being very 
lively. The next remark I remember 
was from the Major, and was not of 
so suave a kind. 

"Say, if I have to sit here much 

99 



longer, I shall never be able to use 
my legs again." 

All the evening he had been at- 
tempting to gain relief by a constant 
change of position, but his efforts did 
not seem to have been successful. 
We all of us were somewhat tired, 
but the Major had a great deal more 
to be tired than we. He had to com- 
pose himself, however, for one of 
the most distinctive features of the 
dinner. 

There was a slight pause after 
his remark, and we began casting 
glances at one another and wonder- 
ing what was to come next. The 
pause at an American dinner we 
should consider an awkward one, but 
our host did not seem to entertain 
any such idea. Suddenly we heard 
two snaps that apparently came from 
stringed instruments, and at the same 
time the panels in a rear room were 

100 



drawn aside. We were taken some- 
what by surprise, for we were not 
acquainted with the fact that a small 
theatrical performance is one of the 
usual accompaniments of a Japanese 
dinner. 

Two of the geishas began to play 
on the samisen, the Japanese banjo, 
and the koto, a kind of elongated 
harp, picked with ivory tips. At 




lOI 



the same time one of the girls came 
out in the centre of the room, and 
we had our first sight of Japanese 
dancing. While she went through 
the movements of the " Reign of 
Spring," the two girls with the in- 
struments began singing in that fal- 
setto key which it takes an educated 
taste to appreciate. They sing so 
shrilly and the. notes they strike are 
so unnatural, that it becomes a very 
painful exercise, and will frequently 
bring tears to the performer's eyes. 
And how about the dancing? One 
who is accustomed to the serpentine 
mazes of our occidental skirt dancers 
and who likes that sort of thing, may 
find it hard to enter into the spirit of 
her Japanese contemporaries; but if 
you delight in gracefulness in any 
form, these little geishas cannot fail 
to please. Their costume plays an 
important part in the series of pos- 

I02 



turings that makes up the dance, and 
no small amount of the success 
achieved depends on the proper ma- 
nipulation of the fan. You can gti 
the best idea of what it is like, by 
imagining a succession of dainty 
tableaux in which the changes are 
made before your eyes. 

After sitting in a Japanese posture 
on American legs for four hours at a 
stretch, it was with some difficulty 
that we finally arose and prepared to 
leave. As we went out into the 
night we were followed by a veritable 
chorus of '' Savouara,'' which is the 
Japanese word for '' good-bye." We 
were somewhat surprised to be fol- 
lowed by the little musmees, bringing 
as gifts, neatly tied up in boxes, that 
portion of the dinner we had not 
eaten. There is something delight- 
fully original in that idea. The smiles 

and bows of our host were succeeded 

103 



by those of his friend, whom he had 
sent to escort us safely home. His 
courtesies did not stop here, for he 
called on us the next morning to 
thank us for the honour we had done 
him in accepting his invitation to 
dine, — a notable expression of the 
refinement of Japanese politeness. 

The night had grown still more 
beautiful during the four hours we 
had spent within, and we caught 
many interesting glimpses of local 
colour on our way to the hotel. The 
air was warm, the sky clear, and the 
brilliantly-lighted parks were filled by 
proud Japanese fathers and mothers 
with their prattling children. Men 
and women were stopping under the 
cherry-trees that were in full bloom, 
gazing upon the sacred blossoms that 
have been dear to Japanese hearts for 
so many centuries. We went by one 
of the temples, standing on a hill, the 

104 



approach marked by a succession of 
bright red gateways. Under the light 
of the moon, this ancient structure, 
which for ages has been the heaven 
of aspiration and love for so many 
hopeful spirits of this land, had an 
air of the utmost impressiveness. 
The whole scene made us forget that 
we had been sitting for four hours 
on our heels, and called to our minds 
the fact that we had had one of the 
most enjoyable experiences of our 
lives. 




105 



MIYAKO ODORl. 




MIYAKO ODORI. 



\A7'E suddenly found ourselves 
^ ^ before the entrance to an 
unfamiliar by-street, and turned to 
our guide to inquire the meaning 
of what we saw. The huge red lan- 
terns hanging in a perpendicular 
row from two high poles, evi- 
dently had a significance about which 
we were in the dark, and the exhi- 
bition of haste, which we observed 
on the part of these leisurely Orientals, 
surely was inspired by no everyday 

109 



event. The girls were looking their 
prettiest with their hair filled with 
flowers and their pale grey kimonos 
tied with that magical sash-knot, 
which is the despair of their Western 
sisters. Along with them trotted their 
smaller brothers in bright-coloured 
flowing robes, their little heads cropped 
close with the exception of a solitary 
tuft. Fathers and mothers of sedater 
age and deportment displayed an 
eagerness that was equally strong, if 
more quietly marked. 

Our attending coolie informed us 
that we had hit upon a festival that 
has particular attractions to the foreign 
eye. You have probably heard of 
those sacred cherry-blossoms that are 
so dear to the hearts of the Japanese, 
and which, with the chrysanthemum, 
are their chief floral pride. It is true 
that meddling foreigners have said 
that they are not cherry-blossoms at 

no 



all ; but that does not seem to prevent 
the delicate mingling of pink and 
white from being a very beautiful 
flower. It is in the month of April 
that they are to be seen at their best, 
and it is then that this aesthetic people 
assemble in different ways, and touch- 
ingly illustrate the part that these 
flowers play in their lives, — for the 
Japanese without their cherry-blos- 
soms would not be the Japanese at all. 
When, therefore, the coolie informed 
us that all these people were on their 
way to see the famous cherry-blossom 
dance, we lost no time in mingling 
with the throng and following it down 
the lane-like street. 

Everything here was a maze of Jap- 
anese forms clad in their daintiest 
robes, and Japanese faces flushed with 
eagerness and anticipation. Though 
aesthetic before everything else, the 
people have a keen eye for business, 

III 



and the street Was lined with booths 
full of knicknacks and toys of every 
kind. And here also were whole fami- 
lies picturesquely seated on their heels, 
sipping the everlasting" tea. Pushing 
our way through the crowd, we drew 
up before a platform-like entrance, and 
were immediately met by one of the 
attendants, who presented us each 
with a pair of enormous white duck 
shoes. If you travel long in Japan, 
you will become accustomed to this 
sort of thing, and cease from experi- 
encing any embarrassment or indigna- 
tion at being requested to remove your 
foot-gear before stepping on a Japan- 
ese floor. The irreverent foreigner, 
however, unaccustomed to walking 
around in stocking feet, does not 
always see things from the Japanese 
point of view, and it has therefore 
been necessary at the temples and 
places of public amusement to have 

I 12 







Japanese Forms clad in their Daintiest Robes. 



a stock of these ungainly foot-cover- 
ings for his benefit. The measure, of 
course, is a conciliatory one, and is 
intended to smooth the ruffled feelings 
of the Westerner without at the same 
time scandalising the sensibilities of 
the Japanese. We had had many 
similar experiences, and so lost no 
time in incasing our feet in a manner 
that would insure us entrance into the 
theatre, even though it might detract 
a little from our dignity. 

In the small lobby in which we 
found ourselves were a number of 
Japanese enjoying the national atti- 
tude of repose, and quietly waiting for 
something to turn up. The other 
end of the room was occupied by a 
counter on which was displayed a 
large collection of fans made of artifi- 
cial cherry-blossoms, similar to those 
that were afterwards used in the dance. 
These are exhibited in a large measure 

115 



for the benefit of the foreigner, who is 
expected to make generous purchases. 
All the while we could hear notes of 
that unmistakable Japanese music 
coming- from beyond a small wooden 
door, mingled with weird voices and 
unclassitiable sounds. We began to 
fear that the dance had begun before 
our arrival, and that we might miss 
the best part of the show. We signi- 
fied our wish to enter by pounding- 
on the small door ; but it was securely 
locked, and those on the other side 
treated our emphatic demands with 
oriental disdain. As we had paid our 
admission fee, we began to gd indig- 
nant at this kind of treatment ; but it 
is better not to gd indignant at such 
things in Japan. Besides, the expla- 
nation was quite satisfactory, as one of 
the attendants told us that it was a 
fixed rule never to interrupt the per- 
formance by the entrance of new 

ii6 



spectators, and, therefore, any one who 
came late must wait until all was 
finished. We were pacified when we 
learned that the dance was now 
nearly over and would shortly be 
repeated, and that we would lose 
nothing by waiting. But we were 
not the only ones who were impatient. 
There was one little Jap accompanied 
by his mother, who, after a careful 
search finally succeeded in discovering 
a small crack near the floor, to which 
he applied his eye in much the same 
fashion that his penniless occidental 
cousin watches the progress of a game 
of baseball ; and evidently with the 
same emotions, if the glances of de- 
light which he occasionally threw 
towards his mother might serve as 
indications. 

Suddenly the music ceased, and the 
crowd began to push in. Japanese 
crowds are particularly noted for 

117 



their g"ood nature, and our progress 
into the theatre was the occasion of 
many sprightly jokes from the local 
wits, which were evidently very good, 
for they were received with bursts of 
laughter. We soon found ourselves 
in a front seat of a small gallery, with 
a three-sided stage before us. This 
gallery was reserved for those from 
over the seas and for those of the 
higher classes of Japan. Below in 
the pit sat those of humbler station, 
making themselves as comfortable as 
possible with their cushions spread 
out on the floor. Spectators who had 
already seen the performance were 
leaving the theatre from the two 
entrances under either end of the 
gallery, but the eager crowd from 
without was rapidly tilling their 
places. The faces seemed the same 
that we had parted with a few minutes 
before, and they had the same appear- 

ii8 



ance of expectant happiness. Here 
and there was a father and mother, 
followed by five or six wee ones, 
hurriedly rushing around to find the 
most convenient place. Apparently 
satisfied, they would finally sit down, 
begin to chatter and laugh, until sud- 
denly one would notice what he 
thought a more advantageous place, 
when up they would all scramble 
again and hurry on in fear that some 
one might forestall them. It some- 
times took more than two trials 
before they were satisfied, and so, 
while we were waiting for the cur- 
tain to rise, the gay mass below us 
was constantly changing about in the 
eagerness of the spectators to gain as 
comprehensive a view of the stage as 
possible. Each little group was pro- 
vided with that indispensable adjunct 
to happiness, — the tobacco-box. The 
occasion meant far more to them than 

119 



what took place on the stage ; it was 
a general holiday, and they were there 
to get as much out of it as possible- 
There was a continual buzz as the 
conversation went on, and occasionally 
from some animated group there 
would rise a loud shout of laughter, 
whence we could infer that an oriental 
funny man had made another appre- 
ciated hit. Indeed, the sight below us 
was so interesting and brought us so 
in touch with the people themselves, 
that we almost forgot that there was a 
more pretentious display to follow, and 
gazed at the curtain before us in total 
disregard of the glories that lay beyond. 
Suddenly our attention was aroused 
by the loud clapping together of two 
pieces of wood ; and as suddenly 
every chattering tongue quietly ceased, 
and every laughing face assumed an 
expression of the utmost interest. It 
was the Japanese substitute for the 

120 



prompter's bell. The curtain obe- 
diently rose, and we settled ourselves 
for the enjoyment of an oriental per- 
formance. Even at the beginning we 
could see that the Japanese prefer to 
manage these things in a way of their 
own, for the orchestra with them is 
not a mere incident of the perform- 
ance with which to appease the im- 
patience of the audience between the 
acts or to drown the weak portions of 
a faltering tenor's solo. In Japan the 
orchestra is kept behind the curtain as 
the chief performer, and comes in as 
generously for its share of applause. 
The first thing that caught our gaze, 
therefore, were two rows of geishas, 
picturesquely ranged on either side of 
the stage, with koto and drums ready 
for the opening overture. They were 
all painted and plastered after the usual 
geisha style, their little red and white 
faces surmounted by towering head- 

121 



dresses of the ever-present cherry- 
blossom and wistaria. Dainty is a 
word that one constantly finds one's 
self using" while speaking of the 
geisha, and none other seems to serve 
the purpose so well. Those on the 
left, in {\\t\xhx\g\\i kimonos, with their 
little drums shaped like hour-glasses, 
were in the full daintiness of geisba 
life, while those picking the koto op- 
posite, though still very young, could 
not but bring the pathetic thought 
that that strange life is a brief one. 
The whole audience observed the 
strictest silence all through the open- 
ing selection, which was not without 
its charms, even to unaccustomed 
ears. Occasionally a small shrill voice 
would be heard above the steady 
thrumming of the instruments, and 
though this could not perhaps be 
called singing, it had charms for those 
receptive souls in the pit. 

122 




But in the mean while 
our attention had been 
i attracted to the stage. It 
had been prettily arranged as 
a garden scene, in a way far more re- 
alistic and beautiful than the painted 
trees and urns which pass for such in 
our own theatres. Here we had a 
profusion of cherry-blossoms to serve 
as a background to the equally pretty 
and delicate girls, who now began to 
enter from the two doors that had been 
previously used by the spectators. 
They were in two files, one in which 
pale blue and pink predominated, 
while the kimonos of the others were 
of bright red. The faces and head- 

123 



gear had been arranged in the same 
way as those of the musicians, and 
each held in her hand a cherry-blos- 
som fan. Their entering motion was 
very slow, consisting of a step forward 
and a step backward, the time of the 
music being scrupulously observed. 
In this way they proceeded up the 
middle of the stage, where they parted 
and formed in line on the sides, meet- 
ing again in the centre. They were 
now ready for the dance to begin. 

The word " dancing," in its western 
interpretation, can hardly be applied 
to the graceful body-motions which 
satisfy the more subdued taste of the 
Japanese. The nearest thing that our 
stage can oflFer for comparison is the 
march, more spectacular than artistic, 
in which glistening helmets and em- 
blazoned shields and swords play so 
large a part, hi place of the knightly 
helmet these Japanese use their cherry- 

124 



blossom head-dresses to good effect, 
while their less aspiring minds are 
satisfied with a fan instead of a sword. 
They have large flowing sleeves which 
they are constantly waving with a 
motion not too slow to be picturesque, 
and they can bend their little bodies 
in a way that their Western rivals have 
yet to learn. They toss their heads 
backwards and forwards in a very 
graceful and captivating way, and 
make any number of gesticulations 
with their sleeves, holding them in all 
conceivable positions in front of the 
face, back of the head, or stretching 
them out at arm's length as a bat 
does its wings. At times the march- 
ing and counter-marching becomes 
delightfully confusing, the stage being 
a mass of slowly-waving colour, from 
the midst of which a large number of 
cherry-blossomed crests can be seen 
and an occasional smiling white-plas- 

125 



tered face. The dancers do not show 
the slightest traces of fatigue, and 
when the curtain is rung, or to be 
more precise, clapped down at the 
conclusion of this first act, they seem 
as fresh as when it began, and a little 
disappointed that they are obliged to 
pause for a short time. 

Another clap, and up went the 
curtain again. The scene-shifters had 
been working hard during the inter- 
val, and produced a charming change 
for the second act. We thought at 
first that we were to have an oriental 
version of a well-known scene of 
Italian love-making, for here was a 
Japanese house with bow-windows 
and balconies that would have de- 
lighted the eye of the most fastidious 
Romeo. But there were only Juliets 
in this play, and they made, after all, 
a satisfactory use of the windows and 
piazza, though they relied simply upon 

126 



their own charms for their success. 
Now one tiny form would appear in 
a window, now one would step upon 
a balcony, and another somewhere 
amid the trees would smilingly gaze 
upon her sister above. There were 
no carefully memorised speeches of 
blank verse, but the scene was full of 
that clever geisha sentiment that can 
be so charming. Each little actor 
became her own poet, yet there was 
no need of words to make us feel the 
happy spirit of romance inspiring her 
unrestrained heart. The atmosphere 
of gayety was not confined to the 
stage but found its way into the de- 
lighted souls in the pit, and scarcely 
had the curtain descended when they 
seemed to feel it their duty to give a 
performance of their own. The chil- 
dren began to run about, pull each 
other by the sleeves, roll around on 
the floor, — all to the accompaniment 

127 



of ceaseless tittering and all with the 
utmost good nature. A wrestling 
match formed the diversion of one 
group gathered around two diminu- 
tive athletes of local reputation, who 
were tugging savagely at each other 
with the utmost disregard of usual 
athletic rules. The pit was not with- 
out gymnasts of its own, who turned 
somersaults and handsprings in a way 
that must have shocked the more 
retined taste of the gliding oe/sbtis. 
While all this was going on, the more 
dignified members of the family were 
sitting on their heels, smoking their 
pipes in a stately manner, and occa- 
sionally bringing forth materials for a 
light lunch. This would have a greater 
attraction than the trials of athletic 
skill and even one or two of the most 
successful turners of the somersault 
made a pause in their gyrations to 
watch the progress of the meal. 

12S 



My attention was so occupied by 
the busy throng below, that it was 
not until I felt a gentle tug at my 
elbow that 1 was aware that 1 had a 
visitor at hand. 1 turned and saw a 
smiling white-plastered face, sur- 
mounted by tall sprays of cherry- 
blossoms, gazing up into mine. It 
was one of the geishas, who had left 
the stage and who had quickly se- 
lected a foreigner on whom to bestow 
her favours. And yet, 1 like to think 
her attentions were not merely of a 
perfunctory kind, and that she was 
drawn towards me for other reasons 
than because it was the way in which 
she had been trained. Her actions 
surely had not an artificial air, and the 
continued smiles which she showered 
upon me seemed to be sincere. She 
did not feel the least embarrassment, 
and kept talking on in her sweet 
little voice as though 1 understood 

9 129 



overvthiuj^ thiil slio said. And a i^reat 
doal of it was perfectly plain. When, 
for example, she s^laneed up into my 
eves in such a meanin^^- way and let 
dn^p a lew dulcet \\oi'ds, could my 
woman's nature refuse to understand 
the little llatterer? She was amused 




by the ornaments on my hat, and 
smoothed my hair in a most caressing" 
manner. When she tired of this, she 
called my attention to a small tray 
at my side, which 1 had not noticed 
before. From this she took a cup of 
tea in her delicate little hands and 
otTered it to me. I drank it with the 
utmost readiness, and did not stop to 



no 



think that it was the bitterest thing 
that had ever passed my h'ps. This 
was the real object of her visit, and 
with another smile she gathered up 
her tray and passed on. I gave a sigh 
as 1 saw her go through the same 
thing with another lady not far away, 
and apparently with the same sincerity 
and feeling. With an equal tender- 
ness would she clasp her hands, and 

— crushing stroke to feminine vanity 

— gaze into her eyes with the same 
admiration as she had into mine. 

And now, for the first time, I noticed 
that there were several geishas in the 
back part of the gallery engaged in 
making the bitter potion I had tasted 
under such romantic circumstances. 
This is no every-day occurrence, and 
it has a long history that gives it a far 
from vulgar interest. Perhaps you 
think that our " teas " are of native 
origin, and that they are an invention 

131 



of modern times ; but you are mis- 
taken. In the sixteenth century there 
lived a mighty man in Japan, named 
Hideyoshi,and he it is who must bear 
the burden of those social functions 
ab'out which the men say so many 
unkind things. For in his effort to 
lighten the cares of state and lessen 
the tedium of his life, Hideyoshi, after 
much careful thought, decided on the 
following plan. He gathered to him- 
self several of the choicest spirits of 
the realm, to whom conversation was 
a developed art and wit a perennially 
flowing spring, and said : " I hereby 
establish an entirely new form of social 
diversion to be known as 'tea.' 
In so doing, I have a careful eye on 
those who shall follow, and particu- 
larly those of other lands, who shall 
shower their blessings upon me to 
the end of time. So come, my friends, 
gather around, and in the words of an 

132 



unborn poet: giggle, gobble, gabble, 
and git." Probably this last allusion 
was a mere pleasantry on his part, and 
had reference to the degenerate forms 
in which we should receive the cere- 
mony. Hideyoshi had no feminine 
hands to assist him, — Japan at that 
period of its history not kindly fav- 
ouring budding debutantes. He went 
about it himself in this way. He took 
a piece of purple silk and carefully 
cleaned each article to be used, folding 
and refolding the fabric in a most de- 
liberate manner. He then heated a 
bowl with hot water and placed in it 
a spoonful of the green powder that 
the Japanese call tea. Nothing re- 
mained but to put in the boiling 
water and to serve the bitter result. 
With a most profound bow he passed 
this around to his guests, giving each 
at the same time a small cake with a 
taste rather suggestive of dry ginger. 

133 



The aflfair was a great success, and 
was taken up with readily by the 
most exclusive sets of Japan, and 
passed into modern times. It is called 
the '' cha-Ho-yu,^^ and the Japanese 




134 



regard it with a reverence that makes 
it ahiiost sacred. 

The day was now drawing to a 
close, and the theatre was gradually 
becoming dark. The informality of 
the performance was continued at the 
next rise of the curtain, when the 
scene-shifters came out and prepared 
to arrange things for the last act. 
They were not visible to the specta- 
tor, however, because they had on 
black gowns and black masks, — and 
because the Japanese have a very 
lively imagination. But to us, not so 
happily endowed, these men's sombre 
costumes did not prevent them from 
being seen, and we watched them 
with considerable amusement and in- 
terest as they solemnly went around, 
preparing the stage for the finale. 
Everything was darkened, and when 
the geishas again appeared, they each 
held a candle in one hand and a spray 

135 



of cherry-blossoms in the other. Enor- 
mous clusters of this flower seemed 
to fall from the wings in one mass, 
barely leaving room beneath for the 
little girls to go through the conclud- 
ing steps. The dance that followed 
was even slower than the former, and 
was accompanied by a still weirder 
music, the tlnest we had yet heard in 
Japan. Everything had an air of 
strangeness and unreality, and we felt 
indeed that we were in a difi^erent 
atmosphere than that in which we 
had spent our lives. Slowly the 
brightly-clad geishas moved around 
the stage, the white blossoms grace- 
fully waving in the air, and still more 
weirdly rose the threatening tones of 
the koto. 

We were aroused from our enchant- 
ment by the gradual descent of the 
curtain. The spectators for the next 
performance were already entering, 

136 



the conversational jabber once more 
began, and to the accompaniment of 
the same laughing voices and probably 
the same jokes, we made our way 
to the street. 



Jfe# 







^i-M 









.>"i 



137 



THE RISE AND FALL OF THE 
KAKEMONO. 




THE RISE AND FALL OF THE 
KAKEMONO, 

IT was our List night in Kioto. We 
^ had spent the day in the temples, 
and though we were somewhat tired, 
we still managed to keep up a desul- 
tory conversation upon the interesting 
things we had seen. Suddenly we 
were interrupted by a shy knock. 
Before any one had time to prevent it, 
a handsome Japanese face thrust itself 
through the gradually opening door ; 

141 



it was immediately followed by the 
handsome figure of a young man. 
Perhaps it was because of the good 
looks that the intrusion was not re- 
sented. The new-comer possessed 
large brown eyes, bushy black hair, 
and beautiful white teeth, and in addi- 
tion to this spoke English. 

" Can look see some of goods. 
Have very beautiful things." 

This is the way they teach it — or, at 
least, learn it — at the mission schools. 

The speaker continued: Would 
Madame be so kind as to glance at the 
charming wares at present gracefully 
reposing in a pack on his shoulders? 
They were something out of the usual 
run, and he had brought them espe- 
cially for her inspection. To tell the 
truth, Madame was very tired, and 
murmured an objection ; but a beau- 
tiful face has always touched her 

artistic sensibilities, and here was one 

142 



of the finest she had yet seen in Japan. 
The new-comer seemed to notice this, 
for he entered without more ado. He 
immediately dropped to the floor and 
began to unpack his bundles. We 
were all soon interested in other things 
than our visitor's face, for he had 
hardly begun to display his wares, 
before we saw something novel ahead. 
Japanese peddlers usually have an 
innumerable collection of small boxes, 
but our friend's were larger and 
heavier and of a much richer kind. 
With the usual number of bows and 
smiles he began to reveal his treasures 
to our gaze, when we were honoured 
by the entrance of a small counterpart 
of himself, who had evidently been 
waiting outside until the coast was 
clear. Apparently they were brothers, 
and together they began to arrange 
their merchandise in a way to catch 
the American eye most temptingly. 

H3 



We had already seen many of those 
hanging pictures which figure so 
prominently in Japanese art, but 
nothing of so delicate a texture as 
those our visitor now laid before us. 
They were for the most part represen- 
tations of religious emblems, but there 
was one of a more secular kind of 
which the young man was particularly 
proud. It was rather large, with a dark 
background on which was exquisitely 
embroidered a tall, white cock with 
head erect, crowing to his heart's 
content, and strutting about in all the 
majesty of a flaming red comb. 

But this was only a beginning. 
Evidently our friend had brought 
these merely to see whether we were 
people of taste and could properly 
appreciate the untold treasures he had 
at his command. In his Mikado's 
English he informed us that our 
artistic eye had touched him pro- 

144 



foundly and had caused him to call 
to mind a kakemono of unparalleled 
beauty, that would delight us still 
more. Whereupon, he ruthlessly 
folded up the cock with the flaming 
comb, placed it with the rest on the 
floor, and set the boy down upon the 
pile to guard matters until his return. 
It did not seem to occur to him 
that this latter act was a slur at our 
honesty — things are difi'erent in 
Japan, you know. 

*' Have got house very beautiful 
kakemono. Priest won't sell." So 
he said, and so we understood him ; 
giving him credit for grammatical 
correctness, when really he meant 
" want to sell." Here, we thought, is 
a touching example of Japanese po- 
liteness ! Our visitor is so impressed 
by our appreciation of his embroide- 
ries that he is about to show us one 
of the treasures of the temple, for 

lo 145 



the sole purpose of gratifying our 
taste for art. Soon this obliging 
Oriental returned, bearing a large 
bundle over his shoulder, which he 
immediately spread before our aston- 
ished gaze, all the while murmuring, 
as we thought, a repetition of the 
fact that the priest would not sell. 
We were further mystified by an 
occasional reference to a tea-house 
that seemed to disturb the young 
man's peace of mind. 

However much we may have been 
puzzled by this, there was no doubt 
that we had before us one of the most 
delicate creations of art. Could it be 
possible that all this was the result of 
man's labour, using what many of us 
find so clumsy an instrument as a 
needle? I have thought long how 
to give an idea of the skill, the pa- 
tience, the taste displayed in this 
piece of tapestry; but who can tell 

146 




a blind man 
what a rain- 
bow is like ? 
Besides, 1 do not 
yet myself thoroughly 
appreciate what it all means, for, 
though I have owned the tapestry 
for some time, I never look at it 
without finding something I have not 
seen before, it seems such an inade- 
quate thing to say, that it was about 
eight feet long and three wide, and 
that the figures were worked upon 
a grey background surrounded by a 
border of black. If you could only 
have seen it as it first flashed upon 
me that evening, a glorious mingling 

147 



of the bright Japanese colours of red, 
black, and white, as yet totally un- 
dimmed by the nearly two centuries 
that it had lain, a holy thing, in the 
Daitokuji Temple at Kioto ! There 
seemed to be some historical scene 
portrayed, evidently a naval battle, for 
there were castles and boats and 
water, and in the distance the sacred 
mountain of Fujiyama, worked in a 
rich gold. Over all, with outspread 
wings, were flying storks, and in the 
sea were strange fish and monsters. 
And there were royal crests, sailors, 
warriors, birds of many kinds, the 
colours as finely blended in this piece 
of needlework as in an artist's paint- 
ing. Later I have had the opportunity 
to examine it more in detail, and to 
discover that the castles on the shore 
are undergoing a siege, the date of the 
events being that of the ascendency 
of Hideyoshi. We are sure of this 

148 



because Hideyoshi himself is there 
in red armour, and though his face 
IS not more than a quarter of an 
inch in diameter, the features are 
easily distinguishable. 1 have the 
names of the other officers and castles, 
with a full description of the event 
written in choice Japanese by the 
priest of whom the purchase was 
made. 

For he would sell, after all. As we 
stood admiring this monument of 
skill and patience, little thinking that 
it might be ours, the young man kept 
up his story about the refusal of the 
priest to sell, and also his pathetic 
allusions to the mysterious tea-house. 
Suddenly, however, he cleared up 
everything by turning to us despair- 
ingly with the words, — 

"Please buy!" 

Then we at last learned that the 
priest " wanted " to sell, and that he 

149 



was driven to this strait by the neces- 
sity of raising money for a tea-house 
adjoining the temple. And we 
gladly bought. It was with reluc- 
tance that the priest gave us this Jap- 
anese treasure in return for our 




American dollars, for behind the act 
there is a pathetic story that touches 
the very heartstrings of the faithful 
followers of Buddha. It might not 
be inaptly styled " The rise and fall of 
the Kakemono^ 

150 



In those good old times when the 
Mikado was only a picturesque orna- 
ment of the community, subject him- 
self to the dictates of some powerful 
sbogun or warrior like our friend 
Hideyoshi ; before the barbarous West 
with its parliaments and trousers and 
sense of art-perspective had begun to 
intrude, a great being ruled in the 
hearts of the Japanese and filled them 
with longing and hope and love. He 
was not a native, it is true ; but the 
fact that he came from India did not 
seem to make him any less national, 
and he was as much at home in this 
sunny island as in his own snowy 
Himalayas. To tell the truth, the poor 
Japanese peasant was not the hap- 
piest of mortals in those days ; for 
we have many stories of the little 
regard in which he was held by those 
above him, and the insignificant part 
he played in the social system. It is 

151 



not altogether strange, therefore, that 
this wanderer from the south should 
have met with a hearty welcome ; for 
his lessons were those of kindness 
and hope. More than this, he taught 
the down-trodden serf that life was 
not a mere matter of unrewarded 
toil and undeserved suffering, but that 
it had a gleam of greatness even for 
him, and that besides there was some- 
thing beyond. This bearer of glad 
tidings dwelt in the temples on the 
hills, and his name was Buddha. It 
is true that the ungodly Japanese had 
little stone images of him of which 
they thought a great deal, and so his 
religion was an idolatrous one; but 
for all that they might have done 
a great deal worse. 

For many centuries, therefore, they 
loved great Buddha, and loved him 
with all their souls. Every one, from 
the haughty sbogiin to the little white- 

152 



faced geisha, found in his spirit a 
something which he could find no- 
where else, and which resulted in a 
stronger and purer h"fe. There was 
one, however, who remained proudly 
aloof from all this, and regarded 
Buddha with a somewhat doubting 
eye. This was no less a personage 
than the Mikado himself, who, after 
all, could not be greatly blamed for 
the way he looked upon the new- 
comer. For Buddha was not only a 
foreigner but a revolutionary charac- 
ter, and expelled a former visionary 
something very dear to the Mikado's 
vanity. This was the creed of Shin- 
toism. Now 1 hope you will not 
embarrass me by asking what Shin- 
toism is, for I assure you, that though 
I have given the matter some atten- 
tion I have not yet a clearly de- 
fined idea as to what it all means. It 
does, however, teach us something 

153 



indefinite about listening to the dic- 
tates of our hearts, and something 
definite about following the decrees of 
the Mikado. It treats this dignitary 
even more kindly than this, for it goes 
on to say that he is not a man at all, 
but a great god moving here among 
us, — a sacred thing to be worshipped. 
It supports this claim by a very long 
and highly respectable pedigree, prov- 
ing him to be descended in the direct 
line, without twist or turn, from one 
Amaterasu, who was a sun-goddess 
before Buddha came. For Buddha 
did not trouble himself about the 
Mikado's genealogical tree, and so the 
good man had little use for him. Dur- 
ing many centuries he treasured up his 
ill-feeling ; but things worked slowly 
in Japan in those days, and it was 
a long time before disobliging history 
gave the Mikado a chance to get even 
with this iconoclast of the south. 

154 



To tell the truth, through all these 
years the Mikado was not the im- 
portant personage his ancestry would 
lead you to suppose. His main occu- 
pation was posing gracefully as the 
head of the state, and for ages this 
descendant of the sun-goddess was 
kept in golden chains, a practical pris- 
oner in his own castle. But he still 
kept his hold on the people, who, 
by some peculiar inconsistency very 
noticeable in their religious faiths, 
firmly believed that story about Ama- 
terasu. This, however, did not in the 
least affect their warm love for Buddha, 
of which they gave evidence in many 
ways. They built many temples, 
which were approached by a series of 
handsome torii, or stone gateways, and 
which were regularly attended by 
priests. But by far the best thing 
they did was to make these embroid- 
ered pictures, one of which I have 

155 



described at length. Those were 
emphatically the days of the kake- 
monos, and they are the most tell- 
ing expressions of the deep-rooted 
affection with which the Japanese 
regarded their divine teacher. The 
works are deeply religious in the most 
profound sense of the word, and fill 
the same place in Japanese art that 
the works of Raphael and Michael 
Angelo do in Christian painting. 

And these old masters had their 
counterparts in Japan, though but few 
are known to fame. 1 fancy, for 
example, that not many have heard of 
a certain genius named Tosa Mytzeoki ; 
but he it was who flourished at the 
middle of the last century and spent 
three years of his life in making the 
beautiful tapestry that 1 now possess. 
The makers of these kakemonos 
formed a separate class of society, and 
spent their whole lives in the practice 

156 







Handsome ioni, or Stone Gateways. 



of the delicate art. They had no in- 
strument but the needle, and no 
material but Japanese silk with which 
to produce these wonderful results. 
They worked year after year at the 
beck of grosser spirits than them- 
selves, and of course were poor and 
unhappy. They did not have the 
hope of fame that inspires so many 
artistic souls ; for when a kakemono 
was completed it was immediately 
laid away in the temple, far from 
vulgar eyes. Poor Tosa Mytzeoki 
never dreamed that the result of his 
delicate toil would some day grace 
an American drawing-room I it is 
true that on days of religious festi- 
vals the kakemonos would sometimes 
be brought out and used in deco- 
rations for the walls, but these oc- 
casional exhibitions were a sorry 
foundation for future fame. 

When some nobleman — for the 
159 



higher classes alone could afford such 
a sacrifice — wished to gain the fa- 
vour of Buddha, he would go to one 
of these humble artists and give him 
an order for a kakemono. There were 
two kinds from which he might select, 
those that were embroidered and 
those made of paper. The latter were 
especially abundant, and of all kinds 
and sizes. Many of them contained 
merely an autograph done with the 
brush, — the national pen; for the 
Japanese have always had a liking for 
fine handwriting, esteeming excel- 
lence in that line a separate art. The 
figures with which a large number 
of these paper kakemonos are covered 
are splendid examples of Japanese 
painting, the scenes being mostly of 
a historical and religious kind. Bud- 
dha and Confucius are the special 
favourites. The backgrounds are 
often filled with a host of figures ; 

1 60 



I remember one at Kioto, that con- 
tains nearly as many faces as Tinto- 
retto's painting in the Doge's Palace at 
Venice. This kakemono is remarkable 
for other reasons than this, for the 
work is lifelike and vigorous, and 
though five hundred years old is well 
preserved, it is called the *' Death of 
Buddha," and represents the expiring 
prophet surrounded by worshippers 
with grief-stricken faces, so vividly 
depicted that the very air seems filled 
with lamentation. 

For many centuries these kake- 
monos were being collected in the 
Buddhist temples all over Japan. 
Then came the memorable year 1868, 
— a year that marked the close of the 
Japanese middle ages. The feudal 
system was abolished, and the whole 
scheme of government renovated. 
Now the Mikado emerged from his 
obscure position as a public official, 

II i6i 



and began to play more than a sen- 
timental part in Japanese life. The 
days of the sbogiins were over, and 
the Mikado was the Mikado indeed. 
From this time the misfortunes of the 
kakemonos began. The long-awaited 
opportunity of the Mikado had arrived. 
He solemnly sent forth an edict that 
Buddha had outlived his usefulness, 
and that the day of his great-great- 
grandmother, the sun-goddess, had 
come ; the sole religion of the Jap- 
anese henceforth was to follow the 
teachings of his heart, but above all 
those of the Mikado. So Buddha's 
occupation was gone. The Japanese 
were already on that downward path, 
which was to end in their wearing 
European trousers under Japanese 
kimonos, and they began to tmd the 
Indian prophet a little out of date. 
And besides, the missionaries had 
impressed upon their minds that 

162 



those little stone images were things 
no self-respecting man would have 
about him. Many, therefore, decided 
to do away with these abomina- 
tions, and follow the teachings of 
their hearts. 

But, though the government was 
persistent, Buddha was even more so, 
and was very loath to give up the sway 
he had secured over the affections of 
the Japanese. The humbler classes 
were also blind to the superior virtues 
of the Shinto Temple, and therefore 
an interesting struggle began, to see 
which was the fitter to survive. The 
struggle is not ended yet, nor is there 
any great indication that it soon will 
be. The Mikado himself has con- 
fessed the weakness of his own cause, 
for he has found that the mere listen- 
ing to the teachings of one's heart 
and obeying the decrees of the sov- 
ereign does not constitute a religion, 

163 



He has therefore been obliged to bor- 
row a great deal from his antagonist, 
and it so happens that the state re- 
ligion of Japan is a tangled problem. 
But the masses of the people are still 
faithful to Buddha, whose temples 
are increasing every day. 

In the midst of all these reforms 
there was one class on whom the bur- 
den rested with a peculiar weight. 
What was to become of the priests ? 
The A\ikado cared no more for these 
than he did for Buddha himself, and 
so, while a large part of Japan was 
listening to the teachings of its heart, 
these priests wandered in a melan- 
choly way about the temples, at a 
loss as to what it all meant. Not 
only this, but they were hungry men, 
as the governmental supplies had 
suddenly ceased. The temples were 
beginning to show the evils of the 
sentimental tendency of the people, 

164 



' "!3s^ . Tj-! «j*g 




and it was evident that something 
must be done, or Buddha would have 
to limp back to India with a lessened 
appreciation of Japanese hospitality. 
Thus it was that some one more dar- 
ing than the rest bethought him of 
the kakemonos. Here were treasures 
indeed, and moreover here were 
wealthy foreigners beginning to swarm 
anxiously to lay sacrilegious hands on 
everything. You see it was a simple 
case of sentiment versus necessity, and 
as usual necessity came out on top. 
The priests must be fed, tea-houses 
must be built, the temples preserved ; 
the government frowned upon them 
all. Every time, therefore, that the 
needs became too pressing to be re- 
sisted, a kakemono was aroused from 
its rest of ages, and converted into 
cash. Buddha was thus given a lease 
of life once more, while his sacred 
kakemonos were transported to do ser- 

167 



vice in the drawing-rooms of Europe 
and America. 

Many of them were bought up by 
the Japanese themselves. They are 
a source of entertainment at dinner 
parties, where they are brought out 
for the inspection of the guests in 
much the same fashion that we dis- 
play our bric-a-brac or collection of 
paintings. A careful history of each 
is kept, which always accompanies 
it. The more kakemonos the Japanese 
has, and the greater the antiquity of 
them, the prouder man he is. But the 
demand for them has occasioned many 
imitations which are reserved for the 
benetlt of the unsuspecting foreigner. 
The connoisseur, how^ever, can detect 
the difference as easily as he can 
distinguish between a copy and an 
original. 

But the problem is not solved ytt 
The government has issued another 

i68 



decree, obliging the priests to make an 
inventory of the treasures of the tem- 
ple, and to see that no more kakemonos 
are sold. He that has secured one 
of these works of art, therefore, has 
great cause for congratulation. But 
one still wonders what is to become 
of the hungr}^ priests, and the shame- 
fully-treated prophet of India. The 
question is made more interesting 
because Buddha shows about as much 
indication of returning to his native 
land as the priests do to begin listen- 
ing to the teachings of their hearts. 




169 



A GLIMPSE OF ROYALTY. 



4.,^ 




A GLIMPSE OF ROYALTY. 

" you must go to Nara," they told 
^ us, as soon as we had landed 
in Japan. " It is one of the oldest 
and most sacred cities of the Empire. 
Though now politically of little im- 
portance, there are many interesting 
things to be seen. There are beauti- 
ful groves of cryptomerias, shadowy 
roads, crumblmg stone lanterns, tame 
deer, and many an ancient Shinto 

173 



temple. If you do not see Nam, you 
do not see Japan." 

And so on a certain April morning 
we found ourselves on our way to 
the southern part of the island. 

You have heard much of the sun- 
shine and the tlowers, the tea-drink- 
ing, and the various aesthetic touches 
of Japanese life, so it may be some- 
what disillusioning to learn that there 
are other points of view. This thought 
forces itself upon my mind whenever 
1 think of our watery journey to Nara, 
— for it rains in Japan. The days can 
be cold and dark, hotel accommoda- 
tions can be scanty, and foreigners 
can take a long and hungry railroad 
ride, and have impressions that they 
do not care to put down in a book of 
travels. We had heard the praises of 
the journey so rapturously sung, that 
the rainy mountains, the swollen 
streams, the dripping trees, the cold, 

174 



wet, and uncomfortable passengers, 
struck us with a painful sense of the 
reality of things. As yet 1 had ex- 
perienced only the warm and sunshiny 
side of the climate, and so, as 1 stepped 
from the train that afternoon, and 
gazed about on the various signs of 
general discomfort, I could but ask 
myself, " Is this Japan ? " 

Yes, it was Japan, and more than 
that, it was Nara. If 1 had any reason- 
able doubt, before me stood the ever- 
lasting symbol of things Japanese, — 
the jinrikisha man. He had a melan- 
choly and rainy-weather look, which 
was increased by the freedom with 
which he had discarded his usual cos- 
tume and appeared wrapped in a 
covering of straw. Such a pic- 
turesque equipage and ingenuous 
attendant look well in a photograph, 
and can even afford a certain amount 
of pleasure in a busy city with plenty 

175 



of daylight and interesting objects as 
a background ; but as I stood there, 
facing the downpour and a two-mile 
ride, I began to wonder whether the 
ancient capital of Japan was such 
a fascinating study as my friends had 
promised. 

For all that, 1 crawled in, and my 
stoical friend began to arrange me 
with a tenderness of which his face 
betrayed no sign. He drew a leather 
robe over my lap, tucked it in to keep 
out the least intruding drop of rain, 
drew the top of the carriage completely 
over and shut me in, much after the 
way in which my grandmother used 
to draw her sunbonnet over her face. 
Everything was dark and mysterious, 
and had I been of a nervous tempera- 
ment there would have been much to 
terrify. I began to wonder how the 
rest of the party was getting on ; but 
the blind faith that there was 'xjinrik- 

176 




isha somewhere back of me could not be 
confirmed until 1 had reached the end. 
I could feel small streams of water 
trickling down my neck, and pools 
gathered in the bottom of the carriage. 
It began to splash into my face and 
hands ; the wind came pouring in, 
and a blast occasionally unloosened 
my lap robe. I was surrounded by 

12 17; 



impenetrable darkness, with the ex- 
ception of a small aperture below, 
where I caught sight of a pair of un- 
covered legs automatically moving. 
1 divined that these were the property 
of the gentleman who had arranged 
me in my present position with such 
extreme solicitude, and whose spirit 
would have been keenly pained had 
he known that so large a portion of 
the storm was finding its way into 
the carriage. His utter disregard of 
himself had a suggestion of the sub- 
lime ; for, though the day was cold, 
he had on hardly more than a cover- 
ing of straw, and his bare feet went 
through the mud and pools with the 
utmost indifference. I learned after- 
ward that his limited wardrobe was 
not so real as apparent, and that his 
appearance that afternoon was caused 
not so much by poverty as by pride ; 
for this jinrikisba man occupied an 

178 



enviable position among his fellows, 
and had reason to consider himself 
a favourite of fortune. This is all 
explained when I tell you that he was 
the haughty possessor of a pair of 
European trousers. It mattered little 
to him that these might have been 
thrown aside by some more fastidious 
American, or that the style might 
have been a little behind the time. 
They were the chief glory of his life, 
— and the chief torment too. No 
one can say how much his melan- 
choly aspect was caused by the fact 
that fate had heaped such bountiful 
favours and grave responsibilities on 
his head, — for he lived under the 
constant fear that some day he might 
wear these trousers out. And so, 
with the true Japanese spirit of econ- 
omy, he had hit upon an excellent plan 
against such a contingency, — he re- 
solved not to wear them at all. 

179 



This unconscious humourist fur- 
nished the only diversion of the ride. 
Doubtless 1 passed through many 
delightful scenes, and might have 
caught many charming bits of Jap- 
anese rural life. I shall never know 
how those tea-tields looked in that 
pouring rain, and the plodding Orien- 
tals that must have 
passed are a sealed 
picture. I could 
occasionally hear 
the tall trees sway- 
ing and scraping 
together in the 
cold breeze, but 
they were not for 
the eye. All that 
I could see was a 
small square of 

mud and water, and the mourniul 
movement of the untrousered legs 
below. These were very instructive 

I So 




as object-lessons in domestic econ- 
omy, but I would have preferred to 
have enough landscape to set them 
off to better advantage. Such an in- 
teresting thing, however, was enough 
in itself to keep my spirit up, and I 
thoroughly enjoyed the ride, in spite 
of the many things 1 could not see. 
My faithful friend unconsciously kept 
up a stock of that good humour 
which was soon to be called into 
play; for when we had reached the 
hotel where we were to spend the 
night, the guide came gloomily to- 
wards us and made the announcement 
that the house was full, and that we 
would be obliged to find some other 
place. He said that he had succeeded 
in finding a small Japanese house near 
by, and that this was the best that 
could be done. 

It was still raining hard, the night 
was getting dark, and there was noth- 

i8i 



ing for us to do but to take what we 
could get; and I do not know that 
we regretted it after all. The ap- 
proach to the house was not con- 
venient, but the place itself was of 
the true Japanese daintiness : a tiny 
afifair, with but one story, the earth- 
quakes having been duly considered 
in its erection. It contained but two 
rooms, and resembled more a child's 
play-house than a dwelling. It was 
furnished with the ever-present white 
mats that are so prominent a feature 
of Japanese domestic life. We de- 
cided to conform ourselves to our 
surroundings, and be distinctively 
Japanese. So, carefully removing our 
shoes, we sat down on our heels, 
while the guide departed to see what 
could be found to eat. This oriental 
posture is very interesting as an exper- 
iment, but I would not advise you to 
let your enthusiasm carry you too far. 

182 



If you have spent hours on the floor 
with a child playing with paper dolls, 
you can get a good idea of what it 
is like. Our tlrst intention was to 
spend the whole evening in this way, 
and in other respects to do as the 
Japanese did, but we soon found that 
the effect was mainly valuable as fur- 
nishing a few jokes to enliven the 
conversation. And when we thought 
of eating our dinner after the fashion 
of the best Japanese society, we 
again became irresolute, and were 
greatly relieved when one of the little 
musmees returned with American 
dishes and American chairs. There- 
after we let our attendants look after 
the honour of Japan. They amused 
us during the progress of the meal by 
tying and untying their sashes, — their 
chief feminine vanity, — and by in- 
dulging in the endless capers and 
familiarities permitted to the musmee 

183 



alone. The evening passed rapidly 
and gaily, and the wind and rain were 
forgotten in the Japanese dreams that 
followed the artless speeches and 
childish pranks of our little enter- 
tainers. 

A soft, grey light came streaming 
through the paper panes, and in my 
drowsy ears 1 heard the chatter of 
the miismees, telling us that it was 
morning, and time to be on our way. 
The storm was not entirely over, 
though it was indulging in a momen- 
tary pause. The water was dripping 
from the trees, only waiting for the 
sunlight to pierce through the heavy 
clouds to clothe every leaf with spark- 
ling gems. The sky had an air of 
indetiniteness and unconcern, in doubt 
whether to repeat its performance of 
the day before, or to burst forth into 
that splendour with which we were 
more familiar. There was nothing 

1*84 




Tying and untying their Sasiies. 



lacking but this for a perfect day ; the 
wind had worn itself out during the 
night, the atmosphere was assuming 
a more oriental gentleness, the flowers 
were fresh and bright, and our hearts 
were full of gay anticipation. We 
had little time during the day and 
evening previous to think of one great 
predominant fact: that we were at 
the far-famed city of Southern Japan, 
warm with tradition and beauty, its 
history alive with the early tales of a 
struggling people, its temples and 
shrines aglow with much that is 
finest in human sentiment. 

We were surprised at our break- 
fast by the hurried entrance of our 
guide. He was a man of considerable 
refinement and composure, and we 
were therefore taken aback at the 
excitement that he now displayed. 
With bated breath he explained to us 

that the unforeseen had happened, 

187 



though whether this was a matter of 
congratulation his demeanour did not 
make clear. If you are familiar enough 
with the mixture of reverence and 
love with which the Japanese regard 
their dowager Empress, you will 
readily understand the agitation of 
our guide. She is an exalted being, 
the wife of one Mikado and the 
mother of another, and is besides a 
most estimable woman with lovable 
qualities of her own. So when the 
guide learned that she was at the 
present time at Nara and would be 
there for the rest of the day, his emo- 
tions of loyalty and awe had a sudden 
inspiration, and there was nothing 
for him to do but to try to commu- 
nicate them to us. After we had 
satisfied him that we were duly 
impressed by the situation, he con- 
sented to descend to particulars. One 
of the most ancient ceremonies at 

i88 



Nara is the sacred dance which is 
yearly given in the adjoining grounds 
of one of the temples, and at which 
some member of the royal family is 
expected to be present. That her 







'::'.M':i5:ii!iiiMi|iriiiiiic:;.. 



^,^. 



Majesty should select the very day 
that we had appointed to visit the 
place can only be considered as a 
happy coincidence of fate. Prepara- 
tions had been going on for many 
days, and everything was ready for a 
most elaborate performance. At this 
point the guide became somewhat 
mysterious, and began to hint that 

189 



possibly after the royal party had 
finished we might persuade the priests 
to repeat the dance for our benefit. 
Of course we were duly shocked that 
any such thing should be done, but 
we smothered our reverential emo- 
tions, and decided to make the at- 
tempt. I all along suspected that our 
friend had completed arrangements 
before he had spoken to us, but he 
betrayed no evidence of this in his 
anxiety lest his plan should fail. To 
confess the truth, 1 did not feel quite 
at ease over the matter, for the 
Empress had been painted to me in 
a rather unpleasant light, and I was 
very much afraid of offending her 
royal pride. I had been told that she 
regarded foreigners with an unfriendly 
eye, and was jealous of the innova- 
tions that were creeping in from the 
West, and gradually making the real 
Japan a thing of the past. It was 

190 



said that she looked upon the Eu- 
ropean costume as a thing to be 
abhorred, and the silk hat as a sign 
of barbarism. Particularly, my friends 
had been kind enough to inform me 
that she regarded the American race 
as a peculiarly unpleasant growth, 
and one to be tolerated by no respect- 
able Japanese. Though I discovered 
later that my information was wrong, 
the thought sufficed to make me 
uncomfortable, and I felt that to in- 
trude upon a ceremony intended only 
for the royal eye, was audacious and 
indelicate. The assurance of the 
guide that this had been done before 
did not mend the matter, and I had 
some twinges of conscience as 1 
stepped into {\\t jinrikisha awaiting to 
conduct me to the temple grounds. 

As we rode out of the court-yard, 
we observed an interested throng 
gathered around an equipage of a 

191 



kind somewhat difficult to classify. 
Had we seen it in an American city 
we should have taken it for a dilap- 
idated victoria; but it was hard to 
determine what connection such a 
disreputable affair could have with 
the mother of the Mikado. The 
whole thing, from the ragged uphol- 
stering to the rickety wheels, had 
a most unroyal appearance. The 
small, shaggy horse may have been 
having a good time, but he failed to 
reveal it by any expression of con- 
tentment. The coachman, however, 
managed to extract much satisfaction 
from the situation. He had the 
bristling, black hair so characteristic of 
the people, and on the back of this 
he wore a small, low-crowned derby 
hat, gracefully cocked on one side, 
with an air of great self-satisfaction. 
His dress was the not uncommon 
combination of Japanese kimono and 

192 



European trousers, the latter being 
carefully creased, and turned up to 
display his American shoes. His 
studied attempt to appear dignified was 
made the more amusing by the short- 
ness of his stature; but the crowd 
was not amused. The Japanese take 
this sort of thing seriously, and the 
only emotions their faces displayed 
before this cosmopolitan outburst were 
those of envy and admiration. When 
my attendant informed me that this 
was the equipage provided for the first 
lady of Japan, I began to suspect that 
her reported dislike of western civili- 
sation was unreal. 1 told the jin- 
rikisba man to hurry on before she 
came out, as 1 was anxious to escape 
her observation. 

We entered the temple-grounds by 

a long avenue arched over by tall 

cryptomerias, which extended in a 

tangled forest on either side. Through 

'^ 193 



the wistaria vines, almost as dense as 
a jungle, occasional glimpses of the 
sky could be seen. There was little 
sunshine, and the morning had the 
air of twilight. The avenue extended 
in a long and regular line ahead, and 
seemed a fitting entrance to the most 
sacred shrine of Japan. A gentle 
touch was given the whole scene by 
a number of tame deer that find safe 
abode in these forests, where the 
hunter is unknown. As they came 
up to us and looked into our faces 
with their large, confiding eyes, they 
were followed by a troop of little 
girls who had cakes to sell, of which 
the animals were very fond. Little 
was said, for we all felt that we were 
in a sacred atmosphere, and the quiet- 
ing influence of the past was begin- 
ning to steal over us. The endless 
array of those famous stone lanterns, 
ranged on both sides of the avenue, 

194 



was a fitting suggestion of former 
glory ; the days of many of these had 
long gone by, and they were slowly 
crumbling in ruins. We were told 
by our guide that oc- 
casionally one was 
lighted, but most of 
them had been ex- 
tinct for years. Be- 
fore us we could see 
the pavilion where the 
dance was to take 
place. It was a sim- 
ple roof supported by 
columns, its floor the 
mat - covered earth. 
The priests were walk- 
ing around in their 
stately white robes and fly- screen 
shaped hats, with little priestesses by 
their side. We had abandoned our 
jiiirikisbas on entering the grove, and 
now walked slowly along, thinking 

195 




of nothing but the trees, the stone 
lanterns, the deer, and the general 
beauty of the scene. Even the Em- 
press had been forgotten, until, hap- 
pening to glance back, I was startled 
to see the royal carriage with the 
sedate coachman on the seat, ambling 
along at a leisurely Japanese gait. 
A few seconds later it stopped, and 
the Empress and her retinue alighted, 
with the apparent intention of doing 
the rest of the journey on foot. 
Wishing to avoid observation, we 
quickly stepped behind one of the 
stone lanterns at a turn of the road. 
Unfortunately we were not quick 
enough, or the glance of her Majesty 
was too keen, for our presence and 
hurried movement did not escape her. 
As she slowly passed we had a good 
opportunity to observe her closely, 
and in spite of the disagreeable stories 
we had heard, the impression was 

196 



not an unfavourable one. She was 
apparently seventy years of age, with 
an intelligent and kindly face, having 
by no means the severe demeanour 
we had been led to expect. She 
was dressed in the old-time Japanese 
style, with bright red skirt and white 
satin kimono. Her hair was arranged 
in a kind of a halo, falling down her 
shoulders in the back. All the ladies 
in her train were dressed in a similar 
style, but the men were attired after 
the European fashion, — in the prevail- 
ing court costume. The chamberlain 
of the household department, an 
elderly man, was in charge of affairs. 
As the procession neared our place 
of vantage, it turned to the right in 
the direction of the Temple-grounds. 
We were about to congratulate our- 
selves that we were to escape unseen, 
when her Majesty turned completely 
around and subjected us to a scrutiny 

197 



that was embarrassing, however 
kindly meant. 1 bowed with a rever- 
ence that would have done credit to 
the most obsequious Oriental, and at 
the same time the men of the party 
lifted their hats in approved occiden- 
tal style. The ladies and gentlemen 
of the royal retinue returned our 
greetings with a politeness that ri- 
valled our own, but the Empress did 
not incline her body in the least. She 
continued gazing at us with the same 
^ puzzled expression, yet with no in- 

dication of displeasure. Apparently 
satistled with what she had seen, she 
presently passed on. The few mo- 
ments had been embarrassing for us, 
for we did not know of how many 
breaches of propriety we might have 
been guilty ; and our salutations had 
not been without a touch of penitence 
as well as respect. 
The Empress had hardly dis- 
198 



appeared when one of the priests, 
v/ith long robes waving in the wind, 
came running towards us. We were 
now confident that he had some mes- 
sage from the Empress, and were fear- 
ful that the long-expected dislike of 
foreigners was to be shown. This 
idea could hardly have been gained 
from the priest's face, however, as it 
betrayed no evidence of offended 
dignity, though there were signs of 
anxiety and surprise. He paid no 
attention to us, but immediately en- 
gaged our guide in an earnest con- 
versation, the conclusion of which 
we waited with some apprehension. 
Finally our attendant turned and 
spoke to us in the following surpris- 
ing terms, — 

" Her Majesty has learned with 
pleasure that you have come so far 
to see the sacred dance, and is very 
glad that you have happened here the 

199 



same day as herself. She is very 
unwilling, however, that you should 
be kept standing while she witnesses 
the performance, but thinks that you 
should be treated with all the kindness 
and hospitality of Japan. She has 
therefore sent one of the priests to bid 
you greeting, and offers you the seats 
that have been prepared for herself 
and party ; and she will feel very 
much offended if you do not 
accept." 

These words affected us with 
mingled feelings of astonishment, 
flattery, and embarrassment. We had 
heard much of the politeness of the 
Japanese, but here was a unique 
expression of it; one could hardly 
receive more. And what had become 
of the dislike for foreigners which 1 
had been told was so prominent a 
trait in her character? We were 
somewhat in doubt as to what was 

200 



the right thing to do, and stood there 
gazing at each other for a few 
moments, waiting for some one to 
take the initiative. 

" I hope you will thank her Majesty 
for us," 1 finally answered, " but we 
could not think of taking her place at 
the dance. We can just as conven- 
iently wait until she has finished. 
We all, however, very deeply feel her 
kindness." 

"Oh, but you must come — you 
must come," hurriedly returned the 
guide, dropping a little of his formal- 
ity in his fear that we would not 
accept. " The Empress would not like 
it at all if you refused her invitation. 
She says that she can see it at any 
time, but you have come from far 
over the seas, and must see it to-day 
or never. You cannot decline, — it 
would never do." 

Without considering the possibility 

201 



of our refusal any further, he and the 
priest immediately led the way- There 
was nothing for us to do but to fol- 
low; and the faces of our Japanese 
friends were wreathed in smiles as 
they saw that we had overcome our 
scruples. We were much relieved on 
our arrival to find that the Empress 
and her train had gone to the northern 
part of the temple to perform their 
devotions. However much we would 
have liked to thank her in person, our 
acquaintance with Japanese court eti- 
quette was not such that we could 
know just how it should be done. 
With a genuine oriental awe we seated 
ourselves in the chairs that had been 
destined for the venerable Empress, 
and from the cups made for nobler 
hands drank the tea that was meant 
for royal lips. We soon found our- 
selves in a more comfortable frame of 
mind, and by the time the dance had 

202 



begun, we were in a condition to 
enjoy it. 

There is not much variety in Jap- 
anese dancing, and that which we 
saw on this occasion differed little 
from many similar performances we 
had attended. There were five little 
girls, ranging from nine to twelve 
years of age, dressed in the old im- 
perial costume of red silk, with divided 
skirts, the white kimono hdng cowered 
by another of gauze, painted with 
purple wistaria. As usual, their faces 
were covered with white plaster, their 
lips were of a bright carmine, and 
their eyebrows shaved. Their hair, 
tied in gold paper, hung down their 
backs, and on their foreheads were 
clusters of wistaria and white camellias. 
The accompaniment was furnished 
by two priests, one performing on a 
kind of fife, the other provided with 
two small sticks of wood, which he 

203 



struck together, at the same time that 
the chief priest delivered, in a high- 
pitched voice, notes very suggestive 
of the Midway Plaisance. The dan- 
cing consisted of the slow posturing 
that the Orientals so much prefer to 
the agile movements of the West, and 
we had begun to catch the spirit of it, 
and were able to enjoy it after the 
true Japanese style. 

We saw no more of the Empress 
who so disliked foreigners, but who 
could treat them with such delicacy. 
We had another indication of her 
kindly disposition, however, after we 
had left the pavilion at the conclusion 
of the dance. Outside stood the sa- 
cred white horse always to be found 
near these ancient temples, and one of 
the little girl attendants stood by, 
selling the peculiar mixture which 
forms his only food. After I had 
done my duty by the divine animal, 

204 



I took the hand of the little girl, who 
looked up into my eyes and said, — 

" Her Majesty has just gone by. 
She was very gentle to me, and gave 
the sacred horse many measures of 
grain." 



•^r^9^ ^.^ ^t- 



> 



#^ 






205 



FIN DE SIECLE JAPAN, 




FIN DE SIECLE JAPAN. 



Y'OU must not think that you are 
^ a person of no consequence if 
you do not receive an invitation to 
the Mikado's garden-party, for there 
are a great many important people 
not always on his Majesty's list. I 
cannot tell you just what are the 
necessary qualifications to the royal 
favour, for the presence of the entire 
diplomatic corps is not always re- 
quested, the pride of many a native 
noble receives a fall, and no one 
knows what anguish of mind the 
majority of the democratic Americans 
H 209 



in Yokohama experience at not re- 
ceiving a card. Perhaps the most 
fortunate thing" connected with the 
party is the delicate flower that is its 
most prominent feature; everything 
in Japan connected with the cherry- 
blossom is sacred, and this probably 
accounts, to some extent, for the 
chariness with which the A^ikado dis- 
tributes his favours. In October the 
advent of the chrysanthemum is sim- 
ilarly observed, but this function is 
not as important as that held in April. 
Everything depends on the capricious- 
ness of the cherry-blossom, and the 
party is given early or late as the pink 
and white deign to display themselves 
to the worshipping Japanese. Invita- 
tions, therefore, are issued only a few 
days in advance, and are then subject 
to recall should circumstances happen 
to prevent the spring-time flower 
from looking its daintiest. 

2IO 



The invitation is written in highly- 
refined Japanese with a sixteen-petaled 
chrysanthemum crest in gold. The 
party is held in the royal Asakusa 
garden, and the Mikado is always 
present with his slim, pretty little 
wife at his side. The guests are 
usually very punctual in assembling ; 
the national anthem is played with 
a royal sonorousness; the Emperor 
and Empress, with a dignified suite, 
pass through the garden with the 
genuine stolidity of ceremonial Japan. 
Presentations are seldom made, and 
when there is a person of sufficient 
dignity and importance for this honour, 
the ceremony is more stately than 
cordial. The larger part of the time 
is spent in admiring the cherry-blos- 
soms, which are everywhere, and 
which in their early glow are of sin- 
gular beauty. All this is very well ; 
yet it is not the Mikado or the flowers 

211 



that are likely to attract the greater 
part of your attention. There is a 
feature of the party of more surpass- 
ing interest than these : this is the 
high hat. It is this picturesque head- 




piece which redeems the sombreness of 
the gathering, and makes it an event 
unique in social life. You are proba- 
bly somewhat surprised that our occi- 
dental high hat and the delicate white 
and pink cherry-blossom of Japan 
should have anything in common, but 

212 



they do have a great deal. Several 
years ago the Japanese saw that this 
article of dress was the very thing 
needed to crown gracefully their 
kimono-chd forms, and they eagerly 
took it. They borrowed it of course 
from western foreigners, for the Jap- 
anese imagination is not capable of 
such wild flights as this, it has so 
become the fashion that they now 
regard it with a kind of reverence, 
and require its appearance on the 
most sacred occasions. It is there- 
fore specially stipulated in the Mi- 
kado's invitations to his parties that 
the gentlemen shall wear frock coats 
and high hats. The ladies are left to 
their own judgment, and generally 
appear in light calling dresses. 

But this stipulation has been the 
cause of no end of dismay to those 
foreigners so ambitious of social ad- 
vancement in Japan. The Ameri- 



21 



can is more likely to suffer in this 
respect than his European cousins. 
At any rate it not unfrequently hap- 
pens that when sailing" for the land 
of the kimono you leave your high 
hat on western shores. And so an 
invitation to the Mikado's party affects 
you with mingled feelings of appre- 
hension and tickled vanity. It is a 
case where a beaver hat can be quite 
a serious affair. At first you give 
up in despair, and decide that the 
invitation must be declined, but 
on second thought you think it 
might be well to consult your confi- 
dential Japanese friend. You are 
somewhat relieved when this gentle- 
man assures you that everything can 
be arranged, and that there is nothing 
to prevent your attending the party, 
— and in a high hat too. The Jap- 
anese friend now murmurs something 
about " The Beaver Pound," and you 

214 



immediately recall certain institutions 
at home where stray animals are 
gathered from their wanderings, and 
protectingly held until the require- 
ments of the law are fulfilled. You 
are a much puzzled man ; but after 
you have been conducted to the place 
mentioned, this state of mind is likely 
to give place to another. With the 
utmost gravity your friend discloses 




to you the treasures of the place, and 
politely invites you to help yourself. 
For here are high hats, both silk and 
beaver, of all sizes, ages, and countries, 
and you must be a very fastidious 
person indeed if you find nothing to 
your taste. Every time a westerner 

215 



leaves a high hat behind him it is 
immediately spirited away by myster- 
ious hands, and it is seen no more 
until it graces the head of a careless 
foreigner at some social occasion of 
more than common import. By this 
time there is quite a collection, ragged 
and marred as the coins and stamps 
that are a frequent hobby with us. 

You had better visit the Pound 
early, as the hats are in great demand, 
and you may have difficulty in fitting 
your head. You finally make a choice ; 
the likelihood being at best that you 
will have a size too large or small, but 
this is only the simplest of the compli- 
cations. You are by no means the 
first man that has worn this hat, and 
it shows the eflfects of many cherry- 
blossom parties. Occasionally a new 
sleek hat finds its way into the Pound, 
and there is considerable competition 
as to who shall secure the prize. You 

216 



had better in some way exhaust all 
the humour that the idea gives you 
before you attend the party, else you 
will not have sufficient command over 
yourself to view the occasion with 
the stoical eye of the Japanese; for 
the hats show oiT to a better advan- 
tage from a comparative point of 
view. You must place a neat, deco- 
rous, low crown of the latest style 
beside the parabolic curve of several 
years ago to see really how funny it 
all is. There is the white and drab 
head-piece, suggestive of the gentle- 
man of sporting tastes, and an occa- 
sional shaggy something that we now 
see only in pictorial representations of 
Uncle Sam. All this is very amus- 
ing; but it is a graver matter when 
a young man of eighteen has to parade 
around in a widower's weed, or a staid 
clergyman or pompous Member of 
Congress is obliged to hide behind the 

217 



trees in order to conceal the fact that 
his head is adorned by one of the 
little peaked aflfairs in vogue a long 
time ago. Nor are these the only 
things in the same line. The ladies 
of the court have caught that disease 
which is spreading so rapidly in Japan, 
— Europamania, — and have cast 
aside their beautiful native costumes 
for a western dress. Their success at 
best is doubtful, but there is one who 
seems to have managed things with 
a greater skill. You will likely won- 
der how the Mikado's wife can look 
so well when you have heard of the 
difficulties she has to undergo in her 
desire to dress like a European lady. 
Her person is too sacred to be touched 
by vulgar hands, and this unfortu- 
nate fact interfered with her progres- 
sive plans for some time, until the 
problem was solved by fitting her 
dresses upon one of her attendants 

218 



of similar height and figure, hi spite 
of this inconvenience, the Empress 
appears very well, and is one of the 
few Japanese ladies who wears the 
European costume with dignity and 
grace. 

Yet all this is only a fair example 
of what you may see in any part 
of Japan. The changes that have 
been sweeping over the country have 
not been confined to political institu- 
tions, but have affected the most 
trifling details of Japanese life. It 
makes no matter where you go, or 
the people you meet, everything bears 
the traces of the new lands and peo- 
ples that have found such favour in 
their eyes. To any one who has a 
taste for the picturesque, the attempts 
of the Japanese at cosmopolitanism 
are an interesting field of study. The 
background of their life is, of course, 
the Japan of ages gone by, with its 

219 



Mikado, its flowers, its sunshine, and 
its tea ; but upon this are sprinkled 
the innumerable foreign traits that 
make everything grotesquely amus- 
ing. With their Mikado they have par- 
liamentary government, and though 
they are perhaps as 
fond of their tea as 
ever, they can occa- 
sionally lay it aside 
for the champagne of 
the West, and beer 
flows almost as freely 
as in Germany itself. 

We Americans may 
take a pride in all this, 
and may feel delighted 
that the Japanese will 
christen themselves with 
such names as George Washington 
and Abraham Lincoln ; yet 1 have 
my doubts whether it is not a mis- 
taken idea of development that per- 

220 




suades us to dignify it by the name 
of progress. The Japanese are ex- 
tremely quick and imitative, but like 
most imitative people, they are likely 
to perceive only what is most obvious, 
and so become grotesque. They can 
see that there are many attractive 
things about the feminine attire of the 
West ; they fail to see that it is not 
suitable to themselves. It is a ques- 
tion, after all, whether it is the pre- 
ferable qualities of the new things 
which they meet that leads them to 
adopt them, or whether it is a mania 
simply for what is new. At the best 
they are in a stage of transition. The 
East is constantly touching the West, 
and the average Japanese to-day is an 
interesting combination of the inher- 
ited traits and emotions of a remote 
civilisation, and an environment too 
powerful to be resisted. 
You will understand all this imme- 



221 



diately, should you take a short walk 
in one of the streets of a representa- 
tive Japanese city. The appearance 
of the people will strike you as un- 
Japanese. The women, as a rule, do 
not now blacken their teeth, or shave 
their eyebrows, as you have been 
brought up to suppose. There are 
still, it is true, many who do not like 
to see these usages die out ; but most 
of them live in the country districts, 
which have naturally not been affected 
by the changes in the same way that 
the cities have. The old women still 
go around with blackened teeth, but 
it is because they were disfigured this 
way before the innovation was intro- 
duced. The Empress adopted the 
new idea a few years ago, and the 
people have rapidly followed. Most 
of the women still wear the dress of 
their ancestors, yet it is doubtful 
whether this is by inclination or ne- 

222 



cessity; anything in a foreign line is 
a luxury, and only the higher classes 
can afTord to follow the style. They 
still retain their peculiar ambling walk, 
which is like a slow run, but there 
are many little indications that this 
will be abandoned soon. 

It is in the dress of the men, how- 
ever, that the greatest changes are to 
be seen. The number of combina- 
tions that the average Japanese can 
ring upon kimono and coat and trou- 
sers, I have never yet tried to count, 
but you cannot go into a city street 
without seeing a new one. It is 
sometimes the kimono and trousers, 
sometimes the trousers without the 
kimono, or the kimono without the 
trousers. They view the derby hat 
with great favour, and some wear their 
hair long, like an American football 
player. They have caught the infec- 
tion of creased trousers, and take sat- 

223 



isfaction in rolling up the ends of 
them in the clearest weather. I once 
saw an enthusiastic and progressive 
Jap walking stolidly through the 
streets with a small stiff hat perched 
on the back of his head, with his 
kimono turned up in the back, dis- 
closing a pair of flannel underdrawers, 
white stockings, and laced American 
shoes, the whole gracefully consum- 
mated by a cane, which he swung 
jauntily as he marched along. The 
conscious pride that he took in this 
outfit was something delightful to 
see, and the serious and possibly 
envious glances showered upon him 
by his friends showed that he was 
a centre of admiration. 

I was surprised one day by a vehi- 
cle that 1 saw slowly creeping up one 
of the streets of Tokio. It was a 
small affair, with a single horse in 

front, the approach of which was 

224 



announced by the mournful jingle 
of a bell. At a distance the equipage 
looked like a little yellow box, and it 
was some time before I could con- 
vince myself that it was a sorry 
specimen of that most American of 
institutions, — a horse-car. I learned 
later that it was only Tokio that could 
boast of such an incongruity, and the 
contented and proud air of the driver 
was in itself an indication that his po- 
sition was an unusual one. It was 
rather the idea of the thing that was so 
delightful, for so far as convenience 
was concerned, the slow motion of 
the car could not be thought much of 
an improvement over i\\t jinrikisba. 

I have a Japanese friend who had 
been educated in America and had 
adopted our wa3/s, who relates an 
amusing experience he had in connec- 
tion with this strange innovation. 
The cars have bells and conductors 

IS . 225 



after the American plan; but, unlike 
our custom, they are used for the pur- 
pose for which they are designed. 
My friend did not know this, and so 
when he wished to alight he walked 
out to the platform and jumped oflf 
while the car was in motion. He 
had not gone far, however, when he 
saw the conductor running frantically 
after him, with an air of the utmost 
consternation. The car was stopped, 
and quite a crowd collected to watch 
the outcome of the dispute. My friend 
was astonished, and completely in 
the dark as to what it all meant, when 
the conductor in angry tones asked 
him how he dared to disregard the 
law by alighting from a horse-car 
while it was going at full speed? 
The accused man protested his igno- 
rance of such a statute ; but the con- 
ductor was unpacified, and threatened 
to call a policeman. It was only 

226 



when he learned that his unruly pas- 
senger had lately returned from 
America, where they do all kinds 
of barbarous things, and where he 
had learned to disregard the con- 
ductor, that he consented to let him 
go. My friend received a solemn 
warning never to repeat the act, and 
on so promising was reluctantly re- 
leased. 

Many other things in the streets 
will remind you of home. It is 
nothing strange to see a bicycle 
come leisurely down the street, 
perched upon by a Jap clad in the 
combination of trousers and kimono 
that most strikes his fancy. The 
electric light is rapidly being intro- 
duced. The Japanese have their 
policeman, and they dress him after 
the European style. He has a blue 
uniform, a small peaked hat, and a 
club, — but here the comparison must 

227 



cease. He does not exactly know 
what to do with all the power be- 
stowed upon him, and he will never 
arrest a man except on extreme pro- 
vocation. When he does decide to 
enforce the dignity of the law, he 
calmly goes up to his prisoner, ties 
his hands together with a hempen 
rope, and leads him off with the 
utmost gentleness. 

The English language suffers at 
the hands of our commercial friends, 
and their attempts to catch the Ameri- 
can trade in this way reveal many 
startling things. One shop informs 
us that " cakes and infections " are 
found within ; but the best thing in 
this line I have seen, is the fol- 
lowing business card of a Yokohama 
firm : " Jewelry maker, a finest in 
town. Whiskey Boy. Our shop is 
best and obliging worker that have 
everybody known, and having articles 

228 



genuine Japanese crystal and all kinds 
of Curious Stones, Shells, Ivory Cats- 
eyes — work own name on mono- 
grams or any design according to 
orders. We can works how much 
difficult Job with lowest price insure, 
please try, once try. Don't forget 
name Whisky." 

English, however, is spoken fairly 
well, and with what Japanese he will 
pick up, the average foreigner gets 
along without much trouble. There 
has been lately introduced that ever- 
present travelling companion, the 
phrase-book, in which we are told 
how to ask the time of day, what we 
want for dinner, and other needful 
questions; but the language is so 
strange in its construction, that few 
have courage to try anything very 
elaborate, and for more intricate mat- 
ters must rely upon the guide, who 
usually speaks our language with 

229 







*» rir_ 



fluency. One of the men of our 
party tried on a certain occasion to 
show a little gallantry to his attend- 
ing geisba, and began to tell her, by 
the aid of a phrase-book, that she had 
very beautiful eyes. He thought that 
he had succeeded so well in this that 
he would go one step further, and pre- 
sumed to inform her that they shone 
like the stars. You will see that this 
latter is not only a more delicate com- 
pliment, but that it is a more involved 

230 



sentence, and requires knowledge of 
grammatical construction not essen- 
tial to the more simple statement. 
The little geisba did not understand 
him at all, but he kept at it persist- 
ingly almost the entire evening. 
Finally the interpreter was called in, 
and the puzzling speech was rendered 
into Japanese. The girl glanced coyly 
up and replied: "Oh, but there are 
a great many favoured in the same 
way." After that our friend gave 
up the phrase-book, and conducted his 
future gallantries by means of an 
interpreter. 

The Japanese have learned more 
things from the visits of foreigners 
than a change of costume and the art of 
war. Perhaps the spirit of trickery is 
inborn, but the numerous signs we 
saw of this were of an order that 
would do credit to the shrewdest 

Yankee. One of our party was always 

231 



a little sensitive to any reference to 
ducks, and 1 myself had an experience 
with certain artistic representations of 
dragons of which 1 was frequently 
reminded by my friends. Our com- 
panion, while taking an evening walk 
in Kioto, had been attracted by a cer- 
tain individual carrying, by means of 
shoulder straps, a miniature pond, in 
which there were very dainty images 
of ducks swimming around as natu- 
rally as you could wish. He paused 
to watch the proceeding, and became 
deeply interested. His enthusiasm 
reached its height when he saw the 
fowls occasionally dive under the 
water and reappear, apparently greatly 
refreshed by the plunge. My friend 
excitedly asked the price of these 
phenomenal birds, paid down a large 
sum with great willingness, received 
a paper with instructions as to the 
way to produce the desired effect, and 

232 



started for the hotel. Arriving there, 
he began to read the paper in order to 
prepare for the first exhibition. He 
was somewhat chagrined by being 
advised therein to buy a few sprightly 
gold fish, attach them to the ducks, 
place both on the water, and await 
developments. 

And now, 1 suppose, it would be 
only fair to tell you how I was victim- 
ised by a similar piece of roguery. I 
had not been in Japan long enough 
to distinguish the good shops from 
the bad, nor to know the proper 
methods of collecting curios. I was 
attracted one morning by a graphic 
representation of a woman sitting on 
a dragon, the whole evidently the 
work of a Japanese sculptor. The 
colour of the image, a rich dark brown, 
was what particularly struck my 
fancy. The keeper of the shop in- 
formed me that it was a rare piece of 

233 



art, that it was made of a certain 
sacred wood, and that the price was 
thirty dollars. I did not buy that 
morning. In the evening we took a 
walk through one of the busy streets, 
and lo ! here was an itinerant mer- 
chant with my dragon at his side, 
anxiously looking for a customer. I 
quickly stepped up to 
him, and listened to 
the same tale 1 had 
heard in the morning, 
with one important 
exception, — the price 
was now eighty-five 
cents. Perhaps be- 
cause 1 thought 
I was getting a ,^ 
bargain, perhaps ^A^^ 
out of curiosity, 
I purchased the 

statue, had it done up in paper, and 

departed with my treasure. Before I 

234 




showed it to my friends I thought 1 
would wash it a little, as it had a very 
dusty look, and would be improved by 
a bath. 1 was somewhat startled to see 
the rich dark brown colour fade away 
and leave me a pure white dragon of 
a cheap Japanese material resembling 
plaster-of-paris. I called in the guide, 
who gave a broad grin as he surveyed 
the melancholy object before me. He 
kindly told me that it had been 
" dipped in medicine," and I made 
him a present of the curiosity for his 
information. He bore it away with a 
satisfied air, and that was the last I 
saw of my dark brown dragon, — 
though by no means the last I heard 
of it. 

These are only a few of the ways in 
which the influence of the West can 
be traced in Japan. It will be inter- 
esting to watch what the next few 

years will bring about; whether the 

235 



la'mo/io will triumph over the trousers, 
the tea over the beer, or whether there 
will be a gradual mingling into a new 
type. The whole thing may be but a 
temporary mania, a passing aberration 
of a quickly assimilative people ; and 
perhaps in a few years the progressive 
Japanese will see the folly of his ways, 
and learn that he can best advance 
after a manner of 'his. own. 




- V^ ,2-. '1 ._.. 



2^6 



CHO AND EBA. 


















il 0-"Crr1— V' 



==^=51 I III) < ^A *^c 



^i«r 



CHO AND EBA. 

'T^HEY were surely not the most dis- 
^ tinguished friends we made while 
we were in Japan. As far as worldly 
considerations went, they were very 
humble indeed ; but they possessed 
other qualifications which entitled 
them to our favour, and the youthful 
Eba particularly has left a lasting im- 
pression on our minds. Throughout 
our stay they were our companions; 
we could never visit a temple with- 
out their aid, nor climb a mountain 

239 








without their words of advice and en- 
couragement. On many a shopping 
expedition did they faithfully act as 
our guides, and many a quiet hint 
would they give us as to the commer- 
cial wiles of their countrymen. 

Cho and Eba belonged to the most 
insignificant class of oriental society. 
hi a land where caste is of such im- 
portance, I know that any of our aris- 
tocratic Japanese friends would be 
horrified to learn that we entertain so 
kindly a remembrance of these paltry 
creatures, to whom the haughty noble- 
men of the East would hardly deign to 
give a passing glance. Perhaps it was 
because we treated them differently 
that they repaid us with such tender 
regard and would apparently sacrifice 

240 



any happiness of their own to give us 
a momentary satisfaction. For our 
humble friends were jinrikisba men, 
and, more than that, they belonged to 
the despised class of the coolies. Be- 
fore you have travelled long in Japan 
you will become very familiar with the 
two-wheeled conveyance which has 
become an institution of the country, 
and will take a patriotic interest in 
it, for it is reported to be the inven- 
tion of an American. It is a low car- 
riage with shafts, in which a toiling 
coolie acceptably fills the place of a 
horse, and it is preferred by the Japan- 
ese to the most elaborate coach-and- 
four of the West, it was for this 
position in the world that Cho and 
Eba were born, and in this capacity 
they proved indispensable to us. 

It was at our landing that we met 
them for the first time, and had our 
first jinrikisba ride. As you step 
i6 241 



upon the soil of Japan, you will see 
a long row of these carriages with 
shafts resting on the ground, and at 
the same time a corresponding row of 
unobtrusive natives who accost you 
with a most respectful air. They 
have been sitting between the shafts, 
with their hands around their knees, 
patiently awaiting the landing of the 
boat, when they know their services 
will be required to conduct the pas- 
sengers to the Grand Hotel. They 
have spent the time in laughing at 
each other and cracking Japanese 
jokes, for the amount of merriment 
they can gtt out of life seems with- 
out end. If the air is cold, they will 
be wrapped up in blankets, and will 
remind you of our western Indians; 
but oftener their covering consists of 
the simple blue tights which will 
become so familiar to you in the days 

to come. If you are so unfortunate 

• 242 



as to land on a rainy day, they will 
throw this aside for a covering of 
straw with bare feet and legs; but 
the weather will not aflfect their spirits 
at all, and they will sit with the water 
pouring down upon them, and crack 
the same old jokes, and laugh with an 
appreciation to which the sunshine 
can add nothing. They wear the 
regulation mushroom hat, with their 
name and number inscribed across 
the front. 

You will, of course, immediatel}' 
call to mind the hackmen of the West, 
but more by way of contrast than 
comparison. The duties of each are 
in a large measure the same, but here 
they are exercised in a way that is 
entirely diflferent. The Japs have 
none of the disagreeable aggressive- 
ness of their western contemporaries; 
they are quiet and polite, preferring, 
indeed, that you should take the ini- 

243 



tiative in the transaction. It is very 
interesting to watch the outcome of a 
rivalry that sometimes occurs when 
two of the coolies hit upon the same 
patron. The angry dispute to which 




many of us are accus- 
tomed never takes place ; 
they treat each other to 
smiles instead of scowls, and the un- 
successful aspirant leaves with a laugh 
to find a more appreciative customer. 
During my stay in Japan I hardly ever 
saw a discontented or ingxyjinrikisha 

244 



man, and if a genial smile and gentle 
manners are an indication of inward 
happiness, they are the happiest mor- 
tals it has been my lot to meet. 

All this is very well, and yet it is 
with some hesitation that you decide 
to surrender yourself into the care of 
one of those unpromising equipages, 
and it was my first impulse to look 
around and see if something less ori- 
ental could not be had ; but I quickly 
reproved myself, and remembered 
that 1 was in Japan. Meanwhile, my 
companion had arranged the matter, 
and I saw a little old man smilingly 
approaching, dragging the dreaded 
jinrikisba behind him. His face was 
sadly wrinkled, his moustache was 
small and grizzled, and when he lifted 
his hat I saw that his hair was white. 
His spirit, however, seemed very buoy- 
ant, and not to have sufifered from 
the many years of toil that would 

245 



occasionally make his step a little un- 
steady. 1 felt a natural hesitation about 
permitting this little old man to drag 
me about the city ; but the almost pa- 
ternal air with which he assisted me 
into the carriage made me feel more at 
ease. Glancing at his cap, I saw that 
my new acquaintance bore the name 
of '' Cho." 

I had hardly been comfortably seated 
when 1 saw my companion ride past, 
borne by much nimbler and more 
youthful legs than those of my poor 
old Cho. Riding in Japan is the most 
unsocial thing in the world. Each 
traveller has ^jinrikisba to himself, 
and the carriages are compelled by 
law to move in single file, so that the 
streets may not be blockaded. It is 
true that they will sometimes hold 
more than one person ; but these con- 
veyances are meant for the Japanese 
alone, who are so light that two can 

246 



be carried by one man. The constant 
parade of the jinrikisbas, therefore, 
through a large thoroughfare, is very 
interesting. It makes no difference 
how many people there may be in 
your party ; one must follow another 
in regular order, or your oflfending 
coolie may find himself in the lock-up 
before the day is over. You can 
easily see the disadvantages of this 
state of affairs ; it makes conversation 
almost impossible, — and who can 
travel with pleasure if he cannot 
talk? 

Both for this reason and for an- 
other, which I afterwards learned, I 
soon lost sight of my companion, 
whose more sprightly attendant 
speedily left my veteran in the back- 
ground. Cho made little effort to 
gain a position ahead of his fellows, 
but leisurely fell into line, and trotted 
along with the contentment of old age. 

247 



As I knew that my forerunner was 
looking for rooms, I was not greatly 
annoyed. 

I arrived at last, bringing up the 
rear ; and as we stood there congratu- 
lating ourselves, the younger man 
slowly approached us. Eba had a face 
of unusual intelligence, and his eyes 
sparkled in a way that contrasted 
forcibly with the dreamy blinking of 
Cho. His whole appearance was less 
conservative. Under his kimono he 
wore something that had a resem- 
blance to western trousers, and he 
had discarded the mushroom-hat for 
a peaked cap like that of a college stu- 
dent. His every feature bore evidence 
of a keen though kindly disposition ; 
his hair was thick and wiry, his eye- 
brows heavy, his mouth large and 
firm. He had a way of darting sharp 
glances at you that immediately let 
you know that here was a man who 

248 



was not likely to bring up last in a 
'rikisba or any other race. 

He bowed profoundly, with a smile, 
and said, — 

" Please you have me to-morrow." 

My companion murmured that he 
might if he was a good man. 

'* Oh, yes ; me very good man. 
Can run fast." 

"What is your name?" 

"My name Eba; can run very 
fast." 

He had already given evidence of 
this, and he was told to be on hand 
the next morning. He bowed again, 
and moved on. But he had an un- 
satisfied air, and in a hesitating way 
he turned around and approached us 
once more- 

"Cho, you know," he said, with 
an anxious though somewhat down- 
cast face, " Cho very good man 

too." 

249 



And he looked at me appealingl}^ 

'' Yes," I returned, " Cho is a very 
good man." 

" Cho not quick like me," he re- 
turned, somewhat reassured ; " but a 
very good man. Cho old." 

After he had given us this infor- 
mation he waited for a few moments, 
meditatively digging his bare toes 
into the sand. Finally he came to the 
point. 

*' Me bring Cho to-morrow ? Very 
good man. My friend." 

We told him that we would be 
very glad to see Cho also ; and with 
a face beaming with smiles, and the 
most exaggerated of bows, Eba took 
his leave. 

This was the beginning of our ac- 
quaintance with these two friends, 
and we grew to be very fond of them 
during the weeks that followed. They 
were most assiduous in their atten- 

250 



tions, devotin^^ to us all their time. 
The first thing- we saw every morning 
as we glanced out of the window, 
were the forms of our coolies grace- 
fully reposing in their shafts, waiting 
until it was our pleasure to take a 
ride. Eba was of a light-hearted tem- 
perament, and was always laughing 
and joking with Cho, who received 
his advances with a sedate air more 
suited to his greater age. We had 
already had a touching example of 
the filial care with which the younger 
looked after the older man, and this 
was only one of many. I tried several 
times to learn whether there was any 
particular relationship which necessi- 
tated this attention, but never discov- 
ered that there was anything beyond 
a congenial sense of comradeship. 
We may be sure that Cho was not 
the only one who profited by this, 
for Eba was of a more impulsive 

251 



nature, which might have done many 
foolish things had it not been for the 
sage advice of his senior. He always 
treated him with the utmost respect, 
and his attentions were those of an 
affectionate son. 

I had been frequently told that the 
Japanese were a people of little nat- 
ural emotion, and that their extreme 




expression of respect and affection 
was merely the national idea of polite- 
ness. When 1 think of this I always 
call to mind our two humble friends, 
and the genuine attachment 1 am 
confident they still have for us. The 

232 



two men's natures were as widely 
different as their ages ; Cho was the 
practical man, and thought that the 
best way he could manifest his affec- 
tion was by polishing up the jinrik-' 
isba wheels to a dazzling brightness, 
or by running up a difficult hill with 
unusual rapidity ; but Eba more ro- 
mantically permitted himself little 
attentions in the way of Japanese 
nosegays, and in pointing out unusual 
and attractive features of the scene. 
Cho kept a careful eye on our busi- 
ness affairs, would drop many a quiet 
hint on the practices of the shopmen, 
and thought that the greatest kind- 
ness he could do us was to prevent 
the impositions of his crafty country- 
men. It was evident that he de- 
spised the more artistic nature of his 
companion, and at one time 1 feared 
that their friendship might suffer from 
the little rivalry that was going on. 

253 



As Eba's nosegays increased in size, 
our carriage wheels grew brighter and 
brighter, and when Eba was spending 
a large part of his time pointing out 
new and interesting scenes, Cho 
seemed to be seeking unknown curio 
shops from which to warn us to keep 
away. 

Eba was more intelligent than Cho, 
and was always ready to talk. He 
told me that he could read and write 
Japanese, having attended school be- 
tween the ages of eight and twelve. 
He was twenty-two years old, and 
had dragged ^rikisbas for about six 
years. He now worked for a com- 
pany at three yen a month, but he 
was working hard, and in time hoped 
to save up enough money to buy his 
own carriage and be his own master. 
In addition to his business capacity, 
he had a quick eye for what was 
really fine, and always used the ut- 

254 



most taste in the selection of his 
bouquets. 

On one occasion he was deh'ghtfully 
aesthetic. We had been ridin^^ in a 
suburban district, and the roads were 
lined with wild-flowers. We paused 
a moment for a little rest, and lounged 
around in the grass in various atti- 
tudes of ease. 1 grieve to record that 
Cho leaned his head against a tree 
and went to sleep, but I have a better 
tale to tell of Eba. I could see him 
wandering around at a short distance, 
picking now and then a flower, which 
he arranged with the utmost care. 
He seemed to bestow a large amount 
of thought on every fresh addition, 
rejecting many a posy that he hud 
selected, and starting on a new search 
for something he had not yet found. 
Finally satisfied, he returned and pre- 
sented me with the result. It was a 
little bouquet not as large as your 

255 



thumb, but perfect in every detail. It 
was surrounded by a thin border of 
green, and the flowers were the tiniest 
I had yet seen in this land of tiny 
thing's. The production was a real 
work of art, and could never have 
been accomplished but by a man of 
inherent delicacy. It seemed almost 
a sacrilege after this that my tasteful 
friend should be. subjected to the 
indignity of lifting the 'rikisba shafts, 
and toiling up the steep hills like an 
ordinary soul. 

Eba's attachment was a kind that 
manifested itself in smiles. The pro- 
foundness of his bow was also an 
excellent gauge of his devotion ; had 
anything happened the day before to 
jar upon his sensitive nature, his body 
would be sure to incline itself a little 
more stitTly than usual. These little 
congelations would occur when the 
spray of cherry-blossoms that he 

256 



had laid on our sitting-room table had 
remained unnoticed, or when we had 
declined an oflfer to take a sunset ride. 
When all was sailing smoothly on, 
however, his bow was a thing in 
which his whole body played a part, 
and his smile would often degenerate 
into a grin. I was curious to know 
something about his home-life ; but 
my questions elicited no confidences. 
1 often wondered where he stole away 
in the night-time, and what his own 
domestic ties might be. But 1 never 
learned ; whenever the morning came, 
there he sat between the shafts of his 
jinrikisha, with the sleepy Cho at his 
side, and this was the only glance 1 
could get into the manner of his life. 
In other more tangible ways, how- 
ever, did Eba display his kindly spirit. 
He early learned my admiration for 
the mountain of Fujiyama, and the 
desire I felt to view it under the most 
17 257 




l^.^/pj/IHi.^ 



promising circumstances. It is not 
the easiest thing in the world to see 
this capricious peak, owing to the 
dense mist that ahiiost constantly en- 
velops it ; you have to await your 
chance, which is not likely to come 
many times. Eba took it upon him- 
self to keep a careful watch of aflfairs, 

and spent a large part of his time 

258 



with his eyes towards the West. 
One day he ran into my room in the 
utmost excitement, and going to the 
window pulled the curtain aside, with 
the air of a long-nourished wish 
fulfilled. 

"Come, Mississy, quick," he ex- 
claimed. " See Fuji ! " 

And there was Fuji indeed, tower- 
ing in the golden sunset, its outlines 
clearly marked against the sky, and 
its summit wrapped in glistening 
snow. 

But his attachment still expressed 
itself most touchingly in flowers. I 
know he kept a careful eye upon me 
to see what I did with his offerings, 
and when 1 occasionally wore one of 
his bouquets, his smiles and bows 
reached their highest extravagance. 
One morning he appeared early at the 
door with a beaming face, though it 
bore evidence of some anxiety, as if 

259 



he had formed a plan of the success 
of which he was doubtful. 

" Come, Mississy," he said, point- 
ing to the x^iiiting jinn'k/sba. 

But 1 was too busy that day, and 
told him I could not go. He seemed 
almost ready to cry, and looked up to 
me again appealingly. 

" Some other day, Eba," I returned. 

" No, no, — to-day. Cannot see 
to-morrow." 

After a little further conversation, ] 
decided to spend a few moments this 
way, and so stepped into the jiurik- 
isha. He started off in high glee, and 
ran at a pace that would have terrified 
me had any other than Eba held the 
shafts. One or two small children 
who were so unfortunate as to be in 
his way were overturned with a single 
thrust of his arm and went rolling 
over into the gutter. Eba laughed 
loudly at his little joke, and shouted 

260 



lustily to Cho, who passed us with a 
perplexed and disapproving shake of 
the head. Finally we drew up before 
a florist's shop, and Eba proudly led 
the way to the shrine of his peculiar 
pilgrimage. 

He stopped before a small potted 
plant, and pointed at it with a smile. 
1 was amazed to see a 
tiny pine-tree not over T^ 
six inches high, but per- j^^jfifc? 
fectly formed in the small- : ^ :^y% < 
est detail. I had seen v%i^1 
many other Japanese ex- [j^^p^, 
periments in minuteness, 
but this surpassed them 
all. Eba was delighted ' fi^^' 
with my satisfaction, and 
informed me that this 
thrifty dwarf had been 
growing for many years. It was 
to be on exhibition for that day 
only, and this explained his anxiety 

261 



\M- 






that I should visit the shop that 
morning. 

When I told my two friends that 
we were to leave Yokohama, and 
spend a few weeks in China, their 
faces suddenly fell, and only bright- 
ened when 1 added that our journey 
would be a short one, and that we 
should expect to see them on our 
return. They carefully inquired when 
we were to go, and the exact time we 
were to stay. We thought little of 
this until, after having spent the al- 
lotted number of days in the land of 
the pig-tail, we rode into the station 
at Yokohama. During my absence I 
had given many a thought to the 
two friends, and wondered whether 
their thoughts of us had vanished 
when we ourselves left their sight. 
I was somewhat surprised, as well as 
pleased, as the train drew in, to see 
two familiar figures enjoying the old- 

262 



time repose between the same jinrik- 
isba shafts. They were Cho and Eba, 
who eagerly came forward as the 
train drew to a stop, and scanned the 
passengers. One or two of those 
alighting" tried to engage their ser- 
vices, but in vain. Eba first caught 
sight of us, and came up bowing, 
smilingly followed by the less demon- 
strative Cho, whose face, however, 
disclosed that he was a delighted man. 
Eba later informed us that they had 
carefully counted the days and the 
trains, and had hit upon the exact time 
that we should return. 

And now there were more bou- 
quets, more smiles and bows, and 
more polishing of jiiirikisba wheels. 
Again did Eba keep a watchful eye 
upon Fuji, and many a glimpse of the 
majestic mountain did 1 owe to him. 
But the time came when all this had 

263 



to end, and when we must sail away 
from Japan for home. They realised 
this with regret at least, and during 
the last few days were more attentive 
than ever before. Steamer-day came 
at last, when we should have to bid 
farewell to our friends, perhaps for- 
ever. Eba and Cho were not the 
only ones to regret the parting. They 
had become such familiar companions, 
and had served us so faithfully, that 
we disliked to think that we should 
see them no more. 

Early in the morning of the day of 
separation I heard a gentle knock at 
the door. When 1 opened it I could 
see nothing at first but a huge bou- 
quet of beautiful Japanese roses. 
Presently the roses bowed up and 
down, and I heard a familiar voice 
come from behind them. '' For Miss- 
issy." It was Eba's farewell present ! 

264 



Cho, softened a little at the thought 
of parting, was also without, and both 
came into the room and helped us 
pack our trunks, and performed vari- 
ous little acts of kindness. The ride 
along the Bund was the slowest we 
ever took ; Eba had lost much of his 
sprightliness, and Cho's poor old legs 
lagged more than ever. They insisted 
on going aboard the boat with us, 
and tried to find pretext after pre- 
text for remaining, long after their 
usefulness was over. Finally the last 
blast of the steam whistle was heard, 
and Cho and Eba reluctantly moved 
away. 

" Good-bye, Eba ! Good-bye, Cho ! 
Perhaps we shall return some day." 

" Good-bye, Mississy." 

I offered Eba my hand. It was 
probably the first experience of the 
kind he had ever had, and he looked 

265 



at it with a puzzled air. Finally he. 
just touched it with the tips of his 
copper fingers, and sadly bowed him- 
self away. 







266 



%<;^ 



;-^^ 

\ 




,3^ > 








h^ 









-^xS^' 



xV 



.\^' '^/>. 



.0 0. 



^^ 



X. 



oX 






5^- ^ 



.^ 



.^' 



''^,. V-^' 



V 


% 


/- 




x^" 


H 



/• 



.0- 



^-, * 8 1 A 



^ ,0 



.<;^ 






.^^^• '■^:^ 



c^ 



^A V^ 






^> •% 



'<?,, ' 



.<^' 



% 



t* 



'-. .^^ 



..'^'' % 



c^ 









<y^ 






% 



•V. ■^ « I \ 



%%^' ^ 






^" 



.^.^ 









'.'^o 



^^ -^c^. 



,^ 



c^ %, 






% 






t^- v^ 






% .^^ 



^^^ 



%^ 



0" 



y -r- 



c^. ^ 



''^ii^^ 



•■^■ 



A^' 



.^^ "'e 



^^ 



•^- 



x^'' ' •>■ 






A-^ 



/v^" . 



.^^ .^^ 









\ 1 ;i , ■ / 






o-^- 



c^. 






fX 






-0^ « 






.^^•.^ 



.^^^' • -^ 



-^^. <^^ 



o 0^ 



.^^ 



x>. 



o\' 



^^- •/'. 






.^■> -^c. 



o^ 



,<;-^ 



